"PORTLAND, Ore. — Political appointees in the Trump administration relied on faulty science to justify stripping habitat protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, U.S. wildlife officials said Tuesday as they struck down a rule that would have opened millions of acres of West Coast forest to potential logging.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reversed a decision made five days before President Donald Trump left office to drastically shrink so-called critical habitat for the spotted owl. The small, reclusive bird has been in decline for decades as old-growth forests were cut in Oregon, Washington and California.
Government biologists objected to the changes under Trump and warned they would put the spotted owl on a path to extinction, documents show.
But Trump’s Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and former Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith dismissed those concerns — instead adopting a plan to lift restrictions on more land than even the timber industry had sought."
Matthew Brown and Gillian Flaccus report for the Associated Press November 9, 2021.
SEE ALSO:
"Victory For Spotted Owl As Trump-Era Plan To Reduce Habitat Is Struck Down" (Guardian)
"Feds Flip Trump Ruling, Expand Spotted Owl Critical Habitat" (E&E News)
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