Obama administration aims 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The full critical habitat plan will not be published until next week, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that 9.6 million acres of Oregon, Washington and Northern California will come under its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.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Now this is important!!! I think he needs to worry about our soldiers coming home, bring our economy up, having our own oil in our own country, lowering prices,  jobs, jobs, and more jobs...ETC... Come on prez use your brain. Look around. I personally think you and all the congress people should be put on min. wage and see how it feels to support a family on it. Try it! I dare you!!! hee hee!!!  NOW THERE IS A CALLENGE FOR YOU.Â
I have advocated for years the position that our politicians should be given no more than a nice family wage. No perks, no lobby gifts of travel, etc. If we passed that law, then the only people who really wanted to go and do the job they were voted in to do, would run for office.
Another phony crisis. How about the pair that successfully  procreated in a K-Mart sign.
Comparison, Oregon natives similar to spotted owl. Outsiders, environmentalists, and invasive species similar to barred owl. Please leave our state and leave us alone. Remember the spotted owl that nested in the billboard near the Spirit Mountain Casino? That was an old growth billboard. I long for the days of the Burma Shave signs on the way to the coast.
Even when the timber industry was big in Oregon, logging and mill work wasn't such a respectable job that those working in it sent their children to college and took them to the dentist.Â
 @Stooge Newton Georgia Pacific cut all there ground so fast they moved all there operations the the SE of USA.  Rumor has it that they were the folks along with there cut and run game that brought up the spotted owl to slow logging in the NW and aid there move to Georgia pine country. Fact or fiction who knows, makes for more script to the drama.
whether logs roll is more complex than spotted owl rulings.  When the economy is bad which it is the demand for lumber decreases domestically.  There are plenty of logs being shipped to Asia, mainly China at the present.  Should we hammer federal ground just to ship to China? When the economy is good  the price of logs drop for loggers.  They also have to deal with Canadian timber which is partly subsidized  by there government coming into USA by the train car load. Yes spotted owls shut timber sales down, but there is way more to the story.  Overall I still say the timber industry is a success even with the nine ring circus of the extremes on both sides.
Growing up with parents who worked in the timber industry in the late 70's I remember the impact of the democrats spotted owl agenda. That was the first time I got to taste gov.cheese and powdered milk, food stamps and other social services. For 30+ years since Oregon's economy has never been the same and now the democrats are doubling down. Only a fool would believe this is the working man's party!
Obviously logging is NOT the issue if after, cutting back logging 90% as stated in the article after the owl was listed in 1990, there has still been a 40% decline in the population.
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When are these meddlers going to figure when to leave well enough alone?
i hear the owl likes the buildings at the closed down lumber mills
"Obama administration aims to put the final nail in the coffin for Oregon's ecconomy" There fixed the title for ya.
 @ChipClip That's what Barry does for the people who vote for him. Make them dependent on Uncle Sam.
@ChipClip Along with the help of Kitzhauber.
@ChipClip Yep.