Rules adopted to protect spotted owl
OLYMPIA -- State forestry rules aimed at protecting the northern spotted owl will neither aid the bird's declining numbers nor stop a possible lawsuit from conservationists, a lawyer said Wednesday.
"These rules don't protect habitat. Period. End of story," said Washington Forest Law Center Director Peter Goldman, who is representing two Audubon Society chapters threatening to sue the state.
At issue are a pair of timber rules adopted Wednesday by the Washington Forest Practices Board, which oversees timber harvesting on 12 million acres of state and private lands.
One measure freezes state attempts to open certain owl-protecting buffer zones for logging. The second rule prevents landowners from counting previously logged land as owl habitat.
The rules had been in effect since November on an emergency basis. Making them permanent will help stop the slide of protected spotted owls in Washington, Department of Natural Resources officials said.
"These new rules demonstrate Washington's leadership amid the federal deliberations on recovery plans throughout the entire range of the northern spotted owl," Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said in a statement.
But the rules were not enough for owl conservationists, who favored a stricter approach calling for environmental reviews before logging in owl habitat.
"We need a very, very high-level plan to get us out of this mess," Goldman said. "We're not saying we have all the answers. But you don't just log all the habitat while you're waiting for an answer."
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