Red Lodge Clearinghouse

FWS reduced critical habitat -- old growth forests in which logging was banned -- by 23 percent, reopening much of that land to logging.

Tom Partin, president of timber industry group The American Forest Resources Council, supports a decrease in critical habitat, saying there is no correlation between critical habitat and owl recovery.

"After almost 20 years of relying on a static regulatory approach which has led to continual inaction and further decline of the owl, it is clear we should be using active management to improve the health of our forests and the spotted owl," Partin said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this designation doubles down on a patently absurd approach" (AP/Los Angeles Times, Aug. 13).

Environmentalists said it was a gift to the timber industry form the outgoing Bush administration.

The owl's population has fallen by half since the original critical habitat designation in 1994, and scientists estimate it continues to decline by approximately 4 percent per year.

As well as habitat destruction, the owl is threatened by its larger cousin, the barred owl, which has spread across Canada and is moving south into the spotted's Pacific Northwest habitat.

A recent study revealed the shrunken spotted owl population was so genetically similar that it may lack the diversity necessary for survival.

"I have not lost hope for spotted owls. But I think we're at a pretty serious crossroads," said Susan Haig, a wildlife geneticist with the U.S. Geological Survey and one of the study's authors. "There's no way at this point to predict how this will ultimately play out" (Warren Cornwall, Seattle Times, Aug. 13). -- PR

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