ConnectingCalifornia.org

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Lawsuit Looming Over Oil and Gas Sale in Kern County Kit Fox Habitat

3/6/2009--To stop a sale of 23 oil and gas leases in California's San Joaquin Valley, last week the Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors filed a formal protest and warned the Bureau of Land Management we'll sue over the sale's impacts on habitat for the endangered San Joaquin kit fox. In approving the sale, the Bureau authorized the leasing of 4,402 acres of public lands for oil and gas development -- including building wells, running seismic lines, and building roads -- while glossing over the lease sale's harmful effects on the kit fox, whose numbers have been declining since 1967. All parcels in the sale are in critical kit fox habitat and would exponentially step up one of the greatest threats to the species: habitat fragmentation. Besides allowing harm to the kit fox and other San Joaquin Valley species, the oil and gas sale would ensure more greenhouse gas pollutants are spewed into the air. "The information in the Bureau's environmental documents misrepresents the full nature of continued oil and gas development in the San Joaquin Valley," said Melissa Thrailkill, staff attorney with the Center's Climate Law Institute. "It is based on outdated information, and if allowed to stand, will damage the local environment and push the kit fox ever closer to the edge of extinction."

Peruse our press release, http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/kit-fox-02-25-2009.html where you can also read our notice of intent to sue,

and learn more about the San Joaquin kit fox.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/San_Joaquin_kit_fox/index.html