Group sues over owl protection
SEATTLE – An environmental group is suing to block logging on 50,000 acres of private timberland, saying the state’s population of northern spotted owls has been reduced by half since the 1990s, when its plight prompted an 80 percent reduction in logging on national forest lands.
The Seattle Audubon Society sued last week in federal court, asking U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman to bar logging on private timberlands west of the Cascades.
The organization targeted four sites owned by Weyerhaeuser Co. in southwest Washington where spotted owls have been seen, citing them as examples of sites where the court should order the state Forest Practices Board to ban logging.
The Seattle group, joined by the Kittitas Audubon Society, said state rules “offer no meaningful protection” for the owls outside 13 “special emphasis” areas where the state offers specific protections.
A spokeswoman for the board said it tightened some rules last year and has representatives on a federal panel working on a new restoration plan for the spotted owl, which is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
“The Forest Practices Board has gone on record recognizing the importance of … spotted owl conservation and has recognized in particular the importance of federal lands,” spokeswoman Patty Henson said.
Weyerhaeuser said no owls have been seen for some time at two of the sites, and the company does not plan to cut any timber at the other two.
The lawsuit could be important if the plaintiffs can show that the state’s rules violate the Endangered Species Act. Spotted owls have been declining about 7 percent per year in Washington, far faster than in Oregon and California.
“We’re saying, as to these owls that are still hanging on, don’t kill them,” said Peter Goldman of the Washington Forest Law Center, which represents the environmentalists.
When federal officials drew up a recovery plan for the spotted owl in the 1990s, they stressed protections in national forests.
The new lawsuit targets private land. The estimated 50,000 acres at stake represents less than 1 percent of the approximately 7.8 million acres of private timberland in the state, Goldman said.
Two of the areas recommended for the extra protection – one in southwest Washington – did not get it. Weyerhaeuser said it would put together a long-term “habitat conservation plan” to protect spotted owls, but the plan was never completed. Southwest Washington’s old-growth forests accounted for perhaps 40 percent of the owls’ original habitat.
The lawsuit seeks “an even playing field where Weyerhaeuser is abiding by the same rules other companies are abiding by,” said Alex Morgan, conservation director of Seattle Audubon.
Weyerhaeuser owns about 1.1 million acres in this state, about 100,000 acres of which is spotted owl habitat, the lawsuit says.
The company says it exceeds legal requirements for protecting the birds.
Frank Mendizabal, a Weyerhaeuser spokesman, said no owls have been seen for 14 years at one of the four sites targeted, and at another, there was only one brief sighting some years ago.