Feds aim to double habitat for spotted owl
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - The last building block of the Obama administration's strategy unveiled Wednesday to keep the northern spotted owl from extinction nearly doubles the amount of Northwest national forest land dedicated to protecting the bird by the Bush administration four years ago.
Still, conservation groups that went to court to force the overhaul said key gaps remain, such as an exemption for private forest lands and most state forests.
The full critical habitat plan will not be published until next week, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that 9.6 million acres of Oregon, Washington and Northern California will come under its provisions, almost all of it federal lands.
The amount is down from nearly 14 million acres proposed last February but still exceeds the 5.3 million acres proposed in 2008. The biggest cut came in private timberlands - 1.3 million acres. State forests covering 271,000 acres remain.
Following a directive last February from the White House, officials revised the latest plan to make room for thinning and logging inside critical habitat to reduce the danger of wildfire and improve the health of forests.
Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity said it appeared the critical habitat plan and the previously adopted owl recovery strategy were back in line with the Northwest Forest Plan adopted in 1994 to protect owls and salmon.
"In restoring extensive protections on federal lands, today's decision ... marks the end of a dark chapter in the Endangered Species Act's implementation when politics were allowed to blot out science," he said. "The owl has continued to decline since its protection under the Endangered Species Act. Part of the reason for that is the loss of habitat on private and state lands."
Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist for the GEOS Institute and a former member of the spotted owl recovery team, objected to plans to log and thin forests inside the critical habitat area, saying no studies have been done on how that may harm owls, which favor old growth. He added that one study shows it reduces the amount of prey available.
The federal government has been trying to balance logging and fish and wildlife habitat since the late 1980s.
The designation of the spotted owl as a threatened species in 1990 triggered a 90 percent cutback in logging on national forests in the northwest, and similar reductions spread around the nation.
Even so, the spotted owl has seen a 40 percent decline during the past 25 years, Fish and Wildlife officials said
The Bush administration tried to undue protections for the owls and other species to allow more logging, but the effort was turned back in court.
The timber industry reserved detailed comment on the latest proposal until it can look at the full plan.
American Forest Resource Council President Tom Partin said he wanted to see how much of the owl habitat remained from the draft last February. He urged Fish and Wildlife to get moving on efforts to control the invasion of the barred owl, an East Coast cousin that has been pushing the meeker spotted owl out of its territories.
The latest spotted owl recovery plan calls for killing some barred owls, but Fish and Wildlife has not come out with specifics.
Still, conservation groups that went to court to force the overhaul said key gaps remain, such as an exemption for private forest lands and most state forests.
The full critical habitat plan will not be published until next week, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that 9.6 million acres of Oregon, Washington and Northern California will come under its provisions, almost all of it federal lands.
The amount is down from nearly 14 million acres proposed last February but still exceeds the 5.3 million acres proposed in 2008. The biggest cut came in private timberlands - 1.3 million acres. State forests covering 271,000 acres remain.
Following a directive last February from the White House, officials revised the latest plan to make room for thinning and logging inside critical habitat to reduce the danger of wildfire and improve the health of forests.
Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity said it appeared the critical habitat plan and the previously adopted owl recovery strategy were back in line with the Northwest Forest Plan adopted in 1994 to protect owls and salmon.
"In restoring extensive protections on federal lands, today's decision ... marks the end of a dark chapter in the Endangered Species Act's implementation when politics were allowed to blot out science," he said. "The owl has continued to decline since its protection under the Endangered Species Act. Part of the reason for that is the loss of habitat on private and state lands."
Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist for the GEOS Institute and a former member of the spotted owl recovery team, objected to plans to log and thin forests inside the critical habitat area, saying no studies have been done on how that may harm owls, which favor old growth. He added that one study shows it reduces the amount of prey available.
The federal government has been trying to balance logging and fish and wildlife habitat since the late 1980s.
The designation of the spotted owl as a threatened species in 1990 triggered a 90 percent cutback in logging on national forests in the northwest, and similar reductions spread around the nation.
Even so, the spotted owl has seen a 40 percent decline during the past 25 years, Fish and Wildlife officials said
The Bush administration tried to undue protections for the owls and other species to allow more logging, but the effort was turned back in court.
The timber industry reserved detailed comment on the latest proposal until it can look at the full plan.
American Forest Resource Council President Tom Partin said he wanted to see how much of the owl habitat remained from the draft last February. He urged Fish and Wildlife to get moving on efforts to control the invasion of the barred owl, an East Coast cousin that has been pushing the meeker spotted owl out of its territories.
The latest spotted owl recovery plan calls for killing some barred owls, but Fish and Wildlife has not come out with specifics.
They spend the majority of their time in 2nd growth timber, where the food is. But, the lop sided reporting in this story does not include that statistic.
good news...
We must stop the feds from this insanity. Â Obama will and the liberal Democrats will be America's downfall.Â
http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/owl.jpg
Why not send the loonies from PETA? Then hunters could shoot at them instead of this lovely creature. Sounds like a win win situation to me!
man is MORE than nature, even MORE than the beast of the wild
@1791 bullpucky.
 @jenshens  @1791 After all these years I thought that I was the only one to use "BULLPUCKY" proves you are really never alone.
Most of you posters have such tunnel vision............ all you think is "what can I/we/they do for ME".... what will give ME instant gratification?......... Well, how about thinking more globally -  like what is good for our earth and ecosystem rather than "what can I kill today?"............ arg........ so sick of redneck human beings..........
 @jenshens Or maybe it's people who work for a living worried about their jobs and their businesses. Move to a socialist country already. U.S. was founded on the free market and individuality. The tolerant left always the first to call names when someone doesn't agree with their utopian dream.
@jenshens Hey get this the number one threat to the spotted Owl comes from nature the Bard owl in five years or less the spotted owl will be gone because the bard owl ate him! OH what joys of darwinism
I love spotted owls...
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Baked, Broiled, and BBQ'd!
When did the feds intervention help save anything?
These 'precious' owls are dieing at the feet of Barred Owls. Habitat has NOTHING to do with it.
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This is just another ruse for taking more land and putting it under the feds rules. They dont' give a rip about the 'poor spotted owl'.
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Ya know what? When the fed makes the land off limits, the Barred owl will still win. And we the people lost.
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 @bobalouie " When did the feds intervention help save anything?"
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Hmmm, let's see here... The Bald Eagle, The California Condor, The American Crocodile, Gray Wolves, Whooping Cranes, Pretty much every whale species that graces our nations shores, , the steller sea lion, American Crocodile, about 5 sea turtle species in florida and hawaii, the brown pelican, florida manatee, florida panther, the red wolf, 3 species of peregrine falcons, Mississippi sandhill crane, and i don't know, a good 100+ other species that we have either brought back to a point they are no longer even listed on the endangered species list they have recovered so well, or are on track to do so within the next few decades due to property federal, state and environmental organization protection, monitoring, and breeding programs....
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next time you see any of these species, think real hard about the fact that without government intervention they would be gone now... Without the fed, you would be taking your grandkids to museums to see stuffed bald eagles instead of them literally doing so well now that i have one living in my neighborhood in NE Seattle right now!
@Aidenag @bobalouie The Barred Owl is what is killing and eating the spotted owl. Nothing the Government can do to save the owl for being a Darwin statistic. I makes my heart warm knowing that nature is killing off something faster then the Gov't can save it!
 @bobalouie Baloney. Spend some time in an old growth forest and you will realize that it IS different. Very VERY different than other forests.
 @Commenter87643  @bobalouie The reason Spotted Owls like the Old Growth is because of the Flying Squirrels they like to feed on, but I have seen many in the Second Growth as well. It's the Bard Owl that is the greatest threat to the owls now not the loggers. Bards like to feed on Spotted Owls, tastes like chicken.
@Commenter87643 @bobalouie yeah I love a nice old growth clear cut! felling large timber is fun!
 @wynooheeman  @Commenter87643  @bobalouie Back in the early 60tz we cut lots of em. All around the St Helens circle. And the Flying Squirrels would come sailing out going in every direction. And after the Columbus Day storm in 62 we cut blowdown for two years. Made a lot of money but it darn hard and dangerous work.
This is part of the UN's Agenda 21. Google it.
LMAO what a wingnut.
This is part of the tinfoil hat conspiracy lunacy... Google it.
 @Aidenag Nope.It's a fact. If you weren't so lazy you'd go to the UN's own website and read it. It's  in language even someone as simple as you could understand. This is how Obama won, voted in by a bunch of intellectually lazy, non thinking, blind sheep. Bark the talking points.Â
Double the habitat for spotted owl... hunting? Great!
Sadatoni: EPA has little to do with the administration of the Endangered Species Act. It's US Fish and Wildlife's responsibility.
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Yeahguy: If there are reputable data showing increases in Northern Spotted Owl populations,biologists would be most interested. Please post the references. If they actually exist.
Other data show increasing population of spotted owls. Just ridiculous...."Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity"....sounds like a character in a satirical Simpsons episode.Â
This is what happens when the EPA is run by extremists.
Mmmm, Spotted Owl stew!
Oh frigging great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hmmmm... Â Owls or Jobs...
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Obama still sux
 @Richard Burton So does Richard Snyder. You suck better than most women, according to your profile. Not smart enough NOT to use your real profile moron???
 @Richard Burton Your..... ?