Press Release from Center for Biological Diversity May 12, 2011:

Government Urged to Increase Habitat Protection for Chiricahua Leopard Frog
Proposed Acreage Excludes Rosemont Mine Area

TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity called upon the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to increase its proposed critical habitat protection for the rare Chiricahua leopard frog. The current proposal excludes the area of the proposed Rosemont mine in the Santa Rita Mountains of southern Arizona — despite the fact that the frogs have been found to live there — and downplays scientific evidence that northern populations of the frog may be a different species, potentially making these frogs rarer than they already appeared to be.

“Critical habitat protection for the Chiricahua leopard frog is essential to its survival and recovery,” said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate with the Center. “But we need to protect all the places where this vanishing animal lives, including crucial habitat that’s faced with destruction by a massive open-pit copper mine.”

When a species is listed as endangered, areas deemed necessary to recover the species are designated as critical habitat, which prohibits federal agencies from funding, permitting or carrying out projects that will damage them. This Fish and Wildlife Service habitat proposal attempts to exclude the area of the proposed mine in part on the basis that it is unknown whether frogs occupied the area at the time the species was listed as endangered. However, recent surveys have shown that the frog now does occupy the area.

“A project as destructive as the Rosemont Mine needs to be studied for all of its potential impacts,” said Serraglio. “This end run around an endangered species hurts wildlife, but it also makes for a less-than honest assessment of the mine’s impacts.”

The Chiricahua leopard frog has been wiped out in more than 80 percent of its former range. Some studies have suggested that populations of the frog found in the Mogollon Rim area of central Arizona may actually be another species, previously thought to be extinct. “The Service should take more care to analyze the status of the northern populations of the Chiricahua leopard frog,” said Serraglio. “If they’re found to be different, it will increase the urgency to protect both species.”

Litigious environmental groups, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and Western Watershed Project constantly claim there is an endangered species of plant or animal, or a potential endangered species habitat to be conserved, wherever there is a proposed project in the West.

Other litigious environment group news:

Center for Biological Diversity fights imperiled species deal

Stop The Drilling! A Lizard Is Imperiled

New high recorded in frivolous environmental litigation

Legislation to stop huge legal fee payments to environmental litigation factories poised to be introduced

Environmental groups bury feds with Endangered Species petitions

Background info on Endangered Species Act:

 Endangered Species Act — Introduction and Key Sections

Endangered Species Act–Habitat Conservation Plans

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 7:22 am and is filed under Center for Biological Diversity, endangered species act, environment water and energy, headline news, litigious environmental groups, politics, rosemont mine. Tags for this post: center for biological diversity, chiricahua leopard frog, eaja, eaja abuse, endangered species act, headline news, litigious environmental groups, rosemont mine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.