The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that slashed millions of acres of critical habitat protections for the northern spotted owl. The proposed new rule would reduce the protected habitat area in Oregon by 200,000 acres 鈥� leaving far more land protected for the threatened owl than called for by the Trump administration.
This comes after the Biden administration鈥檚 the of designated critical habitat protections for the imperiled species in Washington, Oregon and California. The last-minute move by the Trump administration allowed the Fish and Wildlife Service to reopen a public comment period in March, in which the agency received more than 2,000 comments.
Now, the agency proposes reducing the protected area for the northern spotted owl by 204,797 acres in 15 Oregon counties. This designation was the agency鈥檚鈥� most of it, 184,618 acres, are on Bureau of Land Management lands, with 20,000 acres on Tribal Lands. The new proposal would reduce the species鈥� critical habitat protections on about 2% of the .
鈥淭he Service continues to work closely with federal, state and Tribal partners to use the best available science to evaluate conservation needs and implement actions that protect the owl,鈥� Fish and Wildlife Service Principal Deputy Director Martha Williams said in a press release. 鈥淭he exclusions we are proposing now will allow fuels management and sustainable timber harvesting to continue while supporting northern spotted owl recovery.鈥�
The last-minute rollback and delayed implementation of the rule have generated lawsuits from the and, as well as calls for.
The Center for Biological Diversity Endangered Species Director Noah Greenwald said the decision to withdraw the previous administration鈥檚 removal of millions of acres of critical habitat is a step in the right direction. But Greenwald remains concerned about the proposed 200,000 acres that would lose this layer of protection.
鈥淔rom our perspective, the spotted owl, and our forests in the Northwest need as much protection as they can get and so, we don鈥檛 feel like the science justifies excluding these 200,000 acres from southwestern Oregon,鈥� he said.
Greenwald said the original 2012 designation should not be changed.
鈥淪ince the owl was found to, we would have liked to see no habitat exclusions,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to address both the extinction and climate crises, we must protect more forests from logging.鈥�
The American Forest Resources Council along with others from the timber industry filed a against the Biden administration in March for delaying the effective date for the rule. They argued that the Fish and Wildlife Service 鈥渇ailed to provide a lawful justification for the delay and did not provide the public with notice or an opportunity to comment.鈥�
AFRC General Counsel Lawson Fite said the revised proposal acknowledges the 2012 designation of more than 9 million acres of critical habitat was an overstep as he said many areas are not actual habitat for the owl.
He also said the agency is not recognizing the main threats to the species: wildfires and barred owls.
鈥淭his isn鈥檛 going to do anything to address either of those threats. We have a lot of concerns that if this rule and the critical habitat keeps holding up active forest management projects it will just make the wildfire situation worse,鈥� Fite said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not good for the owl, it鈥檚 not good for our communities or our forests.鈥�
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to publish a notice in the Federal Register on Tuesday and will be seeking public comment for the next 60 days.
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