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In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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Fish and Wildlife sued over Channel Islands fox protection
Friday April 18, 2003
LOS ANGELES (AP) An animal protection group sued the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service on Thursday, claiming the agency acted too
slowly in deciding whether to add four subspecies of island fox to
the federal endangered species list.
The island fox subspecies live on four of six Channel Islands,
but their population has plummeted in recent years. On San Miguel
Island, only one remains.
``The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's failure to protect the
island fox, despite such dramatic declines, is emblematic of the
Bush administration's failure to implement the Endangered Species
Act,'' said Noah Greenwald, a conservation biologist for the group.
``In this case, such failure may result in the extinction of one of
California's most unique mammals.''
Lois Grunwald, a spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife's Ventura
office, said she couldn't comment because she hadn't seen the
lawsuit.
Fish and Wildlife proposed listing the four subspecies in
December 2001. The federal agency had a year to decide whether to
list them under the Endangered Species Act, but that deadline has
passed.
The Center for Biological Diversity said the Interior Department
has failed to request sufficient funds for its listing program over
the last five years. That has led to a backlog and it often takes
up to three to five years to list a species, Greenwald said.
He said his group will ask a judge to set a deadline for Fish
and Wildlife to make a decision on the island fox.
The fox population on San Miguel, Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz and
Santa Rosa islands has fallen from 6,000 in 1994 to fewer than
1,660 in 2001, according to the suit.
The National Park Service is operating a captive breeding
program in hopes of saving the fox.
Biologists point to the golden eagles that swoop down to feast
on the foxes as the cause of the steadily diminishing numbers.
Other factors, Greenwald said, are a loss of habitat caused by
the spread of nonnative grasses and the outbreak of a disease
affecting dogs that has spread to the foxes.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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