New research released this month concludes that the Regime exaggerated the threat of forest fires to promote logging in northern spotted owl habitat. The threatened raptor became the bette noir of the timber industry when it was put on the endangered species list in 1990. The listing created rancor between environmentalists and business in the Northwest for years. Loggers' trucks bore bumper stickers saying, "kill an owl, save a logger", and environmentalists chained themselves to trees. As part of the effort to reduce the bird's protection from logging old growth forest the Regime introduced a required recovery plan in 2008 that was "inaccurate and misleading" about the fire threat. The study published in the journal Conservation Biology focused on fire adapted dry forests of the eastern Cascades and Klamath regions of California. The study found that mature forest habitat is increasing at a rate of seven to 14 times faster than fire is destroying it. The study's leading researcher at UC Davis, Chad Hanson, said the recovery plan "is simply not scientifically justified and would create substantial risks for the spotted owl". In addition to the scientific critique of the 2008 recovery plan, the Department of Interior's inspector general's office determined that the decision making process establishing the revised plan was jeopardized by political influence. Secretary Salazaar has concluded that if the spotted owl recovery plan and the Western Oregon Plan Revisions based on it were defended by the Obama administration it "would lead to years of fruitless litigation and inaction." So the plans were withdrawn. Consequently, Oregon forests will be managed under the previous Northwest Forest Plan which controlled timber sales from 1994 until December 2008. Part of the problem with the Regime's efforts to accelerate logging was its decision to curtail consultation about the impacts on endangered and threatened species required under 16 USC §1536. If the federal district court in Washington, DC agrees to vacate the revised management plans--they are being challenged by both conservationists and timber industry--the spotted owl's protected habitat could revert to 6.9 million acres designated in 1992 until a new designation that passes legal muster is in place. Conservationists consider Secretary Salazzar's decision a good one for the survival of the owl and other species that depend on old growth forests.
[photo: USF&W]