7852

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7852
• Author: Bolin, J. H.
• Title: Of Razorbacks and Reservoirs
• USFW Year: 1993
• USFW - Doc Type: The Endangered Species Act's Protection of Endangered Colorado River Basin Fish
• Copyright Material: YES

52

PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW

[Vol. 11

and its decline thus parallels the disappearance of such for-
ests.91 The owl's critical habitat covers a significant portion
of the Pacific Northwest, and its preservation will require
major changes in the Forest Service's timber management
practices, rather than merely halting a single construction
project. A similar case, though on a smaller and less politi-
cally controversial scale, was SCLDF's successful suit on be-
half of the red cockaded woodpecker (RCW) in Texas.92 The
RCW, like the spotted owl, nests in old growth forest, and its
protection required that the Forest Service alter its ongoing
silvicultural practices by changing a program designed to
control the pine beetle.93
Further evidence of "phase three" ESA litigation is
presented in Sierra Club v. Lujan,94 recently decided in
Texas. In Lujan, the plaintiffs sought to use the ESA to limit
water use from the Edwards Aquifer, which supplies San
Antonio, several military bases, and farmers and ranchers in
Southwest Texas.95 Two springs fed b.y the aquifer are the
sole habitat for the endangered fountain darter and for sev-
eral other endangered animals and plants.96 The court ruled
in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering the FWS to designate mini-
mum flows necessary to protect the darter, the Texas blind
salamander, and the Texas wild-rice.
The Lujan court also ordered the Texas Water Commis-
sionto develop a plan 'to 'prevent putting these species injeop-
ardy, and suggested that'lf the 'State legislatUre failed to act,
the,' court wouldJashioIl:r,.elief by controlling withdrawals
from' Edwards AqUifer'.9.':" Such water regulation has, of
course, historically been the province of the states. Realloca-

91. Boyt, supra note 82, at 1010. See generally Elizabeth A. Foley, The 'Tar-
nishing of an Environmental Jewel: The Endangered Species Act and the
Northern Spotted Owl, 8 J. LAND USE & ENVTL. L. 253 (1992).
92. Sierra Club v. Lyng, 694 F. Supp. 1260 (E.D. Tex. 1988), affd in part
sub nom. Sierra Club v. Yuetter, 926 F.2d 429 (5th Cir. 1991).
93. [d. at 1277-78.
94. No. MO-91-CA-069, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3361 (W.D. Tex. Jan. 30,
1993).
95. [d. at *10, *77.
96. [d. at *13-14.
97. [d. at *92.

1993)

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