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Saturday, February 21, 2009

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Tejon Ranch Insists their Housing Tracts won't be bad for condors; scientists disagree

photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dugm2/2978750165/


http://mountainenterprise.com/atf.php?sid=4430&current_edition=2009-02-20

7 Condors Fell Ill Near or on Tejon Ranch in 2008

2/20/2009--“California condors have rediscovered the Tejon,” Dr. Noel Snyder said this week…

USFWS Condor Recovery Program Coordinator Jesse Grantham said in an interview, Tuesday, Feb. 18:

“We had GPS units on 13 condors at that time and 11 had been on Tejon Ranch in April and May. We had quite a few birds using Tejon Ranch in April, and that is when we started trapping the birds and found elevated lead levels. We didn’t see any [location] hits for any area other than Bitter Creek refuge which is clean of any lead. We notified Tejon and said we have a spike in bird use of their area and that some had fallen ill. They responded by shutting down the hunting program. We had only 11 birds wearing GPS units on Tejon. We have 20 birds that don’t have GPS units, and you don’t know where they are, but where you find some of these birds, you’ll find more. They are very social.”

…(Tejon Ranch’s spokesman Barry) Zoeller said: “Tejon Ranch is not a principal foraging area for the condor. According to USFWS GPS data covering an eight-year period, from 2000 to 2008, less than 1% of all condor GPS “hits” occurred within the area of Tejon Mountain Village. Those “hits” represent a condor either perched, foraging or flying over the area.”…

Snyder says that the highest elevations above the site proposed for Tejon Mountain Village, designated as critical condor habitat in the 1970s, is “the hub” for condors to be able to live as wild birds again.

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Feds Give public more time to comment on Tejon Ranch wildlife-killing plan


2/3/2009--The documents—a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act and a draft Tehachapi Uplands Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP)—are available for public review and comment until May 5, 2009. The previous public comment period had extended until April 22, 2009. The draft EIS and draft MSHCP were initially made available for public review and comment on January 23, 2009.

The Draft EIS and associated documents, including Tejon Ranch Company’s Tehachapi Uplands MSHCP, can be viewed and downloaded at the Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office’s web site at:

http://www.fws.gov/ventura/endangered/hconservation/hcp/hcfiles/TehachapiUpland/index.html


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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-greenspace30-2009jan30,0,2363931.story?track=rss

1/29/2009--The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a long-awaited environmental impact statement last week that gives high marks to the Tejon Ranch Co.'s controversial habitat conservation plan for building a master-planned resort complex in federally designated critical habitat for the endangered California condor.


http://www.mountainenterprise.com/atf.php?sid=4317

1/30/2009—USFWS staffer Lois Grunwald said repeatedly that the USFWS draft “does not make conclusions.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service will be evaluating the impact to critical habitat after the USFWS has reviewed public comments (after the public comment period has closed April 22) and prior to the FWS decision on whether to issue an incidental take permit to Tejon Ranch Company.”

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http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/tejon-ranch-02-18-2009.html

2/18/2009--Tejon Ranch Development Permit Request Tainted by Poor Environmental
Review, Should Be Withdrawn to Avoid Harm to Condors

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http://ecobarons.wordpress.com/excerpt/

excerpt:

On paper, this scruffy outfit with the tree frog logo and the borrowed Tucson gem shop for a headquarters shouldn’t have a prayer against the nearly limitless political, economic and legal resources behind SimCity, except for the fact that the Center for Biological Diversity has won close to ninety percent of its five hundred cases in the past twenty years. This unprecedented success rate has quietly transformed the American landscape, safeguarding hundreds of species from extinction and preserving millions of acres of wilderness. They have taken down off-roaders and off-shore oil drillers, developers and Detroit automakers, wolf haters and condor killers, and an entire alphabet soup of government agencies from Washington state to Washington D.C. and as far away as Okinawa. The Center for Biological Diversity has fashioned itself into the most effective environmental operation you’ve never heard of, routinely outperforming the better known and more moneyed conservation organizations in exposing corruption and official law breaking…

On paper, this scruffy outfit with the tree frog logo and the borrowed Tucson gem shop for a headquarters shouldn’t have a prayer against the nearly limitless political, economic and legal resources behind SimCity, except for the fact that the Center for Biological Diversity has won close to ninety percent of its five hundred cases in the past twenty years. This unprecedented success rate has quietly transformed the American landscape, safeguarding hundreds of species from extinction and preserving millions of acres of wilderness. They have taken down off-roaders and off-shore oil drillers, developers and Detroit automakers, wolf haters and condor killers, and an entire alphabet soup of government agencies from Washington state to Washington D.C. and as far away as Okinawa. The Center for Biological Diversity has fashioned itself into the most effective environmental operation you’ve never heard of, routinely outperforming the better known and more moneyed conservation organizations in exposing corruption and official law breaking…

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http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/columnists/steve_merlo/story/690241.html

angry hunter upset over lead bullet ban in TejonRanch

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34 mil sf proposed at tejon ranch

http://angeles.sierraclub.org/pressroom/2006releases/cbd.htm


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-topa11-2009jan11,0,3334123.story

1/11/2009--He was found dazed in a mountain bush in 1967, hanging upside down with an injured wing and smelling like rotten fish -- a rare male California condor, a fledgling member of a nearly extinct species…


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