| NEWS RELEASE: for immediate release Friday, January 3, 2003.
Bush administration denies legal protection of flat-tailed
horned lizard WASHINGTON DC -- Today, the Bush administration
denied endangered species act protection for the imperiled flat-
tailed horned lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii), an attractive Sonoran
desert native that looks like a mini-dinosaur. "This unjustified
denial of desert wildlife protection continues the president's
anti-environmental policies and ensures more litigation." said
Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist with the Center for
Biological Diversity. "This political decision is a favor to
industry that flies in the face of biological facts and the
compelling national interest for wildlife conservation." The
flat-tailed horned lizard is a small desert reptile that
inhabits portions of the Sonoran Desert in southern California,
Arizona, and northern Mexico. The main cause for the decline of
the flat-tailed horned lizard is conversion of habitat to urban
and agricultural uses. The vari