Judge orders government to revise plan to protect northern spotted owls
Article Date: 2010-09-02 Source: http://www.oregonlive.com
Comments: 0
By Eric Mortenson Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. - In what conservation groups say is a win for science over political
manipulation, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service must revise its recovery and habitat designation plans for the northern
spotted owl.
Judge Emmet Sullivan said a 2008 plan issued during the Bush administration
didn't stand up to scientific review. The judge also cited reports that a team
working on the owl recovery plan had been advised to minimize the threat caused
by habitat loss and to emphasize the harm caused by barred owls, which compete
with northern spotted owls for food and habitat.
An Inspector General's report said former Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie
MacDonald, acting alone or in concert with other officials, took actions that
"potentially jeopardized" the decision process.
The plan subsequently issued by the Bush administration reduced protected
northern spotted owl habitat by approximately 1.6 million acres, and was
immediately challenged by conservation groups.
The judge's ruling sends the plan back to the Fish & Wildlife Service for
revision, as agency officials were expecting. The agency agreed the plan was
flawed, legally indefensible and should be remanded, Portland spokeswoman Janet
Lebson said.
"We had asked for a voluntary remand of the recovery plan anyway," she said. "We
were already planning to have it done by the end of this year."
The wildlife service's Portland office heads a multi-agency effort to develop a
recovery plan for the spotted owl, which primarily lives in old-growth forests
in Oregon, Washington, Northern California and British Columbia. The owl was
listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, which resulted in
widespread logging restrictions throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Government agencies such as the wildlife service and U.S. Forest Service have
been working ever since to balance environmental protection of the owl with the
economic interests of the logging and wood products industries.
Paul Kampmeier, an attorney with the Washington Forest Law Center in Seattle,
said the judge's ruling gives the government an opportunity to strike that
balance.
"Recovery absolutely requires the protection of large patches of habitat so (the
owl) can live, persist and recolonize the areas it's been pushed out of," he
said. "The ruling is a strong step to ensuring federal protection, it's a
victory for those who value sound science."
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