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The Bush administration will ask today for an independent review of the
recovery plan for the northern spotted owl, after scientists and U.S.
legislators said the plan was subject to political interference.
According to a peer-review panel's findings in August, the draft
recovery plan selectively cited scientific reports and data in order to
justify its proposal to reduce protection for old-growth forests and
emphasize the threat of the barred owl to the spotted owl.
The
plan was prepared in response to a court settlement with the American
Forest Resource Council. The northern spotted owl was listed as
threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, fueling the debate
over logging old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, but no
recovery plan was ever finalized (Land Letter, Aug. 16).
Sustainable
Ecosystems Institute Vice President Steven Courtney will lead the
review, Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Joan Jewett said. The
panel will hold a two-day public hearing in January and will work
through mid-February, she said. FWS wants to issue a final recovery
plan for the owl by April.
"It's a good-faith effort to
establish an independent record of the best available science," Jewett
said. "It will be open and transparent" (Learn/Milstein, Portland Oregonian, Dec. 18).
An
October letter from 22 House lawmakers demanded immediate withdrawal of
the plan. "It is inappropriate to move forward with related
land-management decisions until a new recovery plan can be drafted that
is based on the best available science and additional scientific peer
review is conducted," the lawmakers wrote.
FWS has said it
will revisit eight species decisions made or affected by former
political appointee Julie MacDonald, but the agency did not include the
spotted owl in that list (Land Letter, Oct. 4).
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