Owl proposal would open up local logging
June 13th, 2007 - 6:17am
(Washington D.C.) -- The Bush administration has proposed to reduce by one-fifth the Pacific Northwest acreage protected as "critical habitat" for the spotted owl.
They argue that the reductions will "maximize the efficiency" of land blocks set aside for the imperiled bird.
The administration's proposal to reduce the protected owl habitat comes weeks after -- and is based on -- a proposed recovery plan for the owl altered by a high-level team of Bush administration appointees in Washington, D.C., including a former timber-industry lobbyist.
The D.C. team overruled a group of Northwest scientists and others who had produced a recovery plan for the owl.
Tuesday's owl-habitat proposal came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The reductions in protection in the new Bush habitat proposal would be mostly in Oregon and California.
But two big chunks of old-growth forest would be opened up to logging on the Olympic Peninsula.
Timber-industry officials have pushed for reconsideration of the protected habitat, which originally was designated in 1992 at the height of the explosive timber wars that pitted loggers against environmentalists.
Recent research has noted that while old-growth forests suitable for owl habitat have increased, owl numbers have continued to decline, and that the owl faces a new threat from its cousin, the barred owl.
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