Friday, November 12, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
USFWS overturns spotted owl habitat rollbacks
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
has struck down a rule issued in
the fi nal days of the Trump presi-
dency that would have dramatically
reduced critical habitat protections
for the northern spotted owl in Ore-
gon, Washington and California.
The Biden administration’s
revised ruling, issued on Nov. 9,
claims former Interior Secretary
David Bernhardt and Fish and Wild-
life Service Director Aurelia Skip-
with gave a “faulty interpretation of
the science” to validate removing
3.4 million acres of designated crit-
ical habitat for the species.
Instead, the USFWS will main-
tain most of the existing habitat
designations, rolling back 204,294
acres in 15 Western Oregon coun-
ties where the bird nests in old-
growth forests.
Robyn Thorson, regional direc-
tor for the Columbia-Pacifi c North-
west, said the importance of main-
taining high quality habitat for
northern spotted owls cannot be
overstated given climate change
and increasing competition from
the invasive barred owl.
“This designation provides a
healthy and resilient landscape for
the spotted owl and other native
Northwest wildlife while still sup-
Tom Kogut/USFS
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has again changed its designation
of critical habitat for the northern spotted owl.
porting sustainable timber harvest,”
Thorson said.
Members of the timber industry,
however, have pushed back against
that assertion.
The American Forest Resource
Council, a group that represents
wood products manufacturers and
forestland owners, argues the rul-
ing illegally designates more than
1 million acres of federal land that
is not currently spotted owl habitat.
Travis Joseph, AFRC president,
said the designation further restricts
timber harvest and tree thinning
projects designed to help mitigate
large wildfi res that threaten the very
habitat offi cials are trying to protect.
“The West is burning up,”
Joseph said. “Every year, cata-
strophic wildfi res are not just evis-
cerating habitat for the spotted owl
and other species, we’re watching
our neighborhoods go up in ashes
and our national forests turn into
carbon polluters.”
Competition from barred owls
is the biggest threat facing the spot-
ted owl, Joseph said, and the Fish
and Wildlife Service should focus
on fully implementing its barred owl
removal program if it wants to boost
spotted owl populations.
The ruling also comes at an
economic cost. According to the
AFRC, logging restrictions over the
last 20 years have cost communities
between $753 million and $1.18
billion.
“We shouldn’t forget that fami-
lies and workers have suff ered sig-
nifi cantly as a result of past critical
habitat designations,” Joseph said.
The northern spotted owl was
listed as a threatened species in
1990. Since then, the fi ght over
habitat for the small bird has taken
several twists and turns.
Offi cials originally designated
6.9 acres of critical habitat to be
managed for species recovery. That
was expanded to 9.5 million acres
in 2012.
A lawsuit led by the AFRC and
local counties in 2013 prompted
the USFWS to take another look
at spotted owl habitat. On Aug. 11,
2020, the agency called for exclud-
ing 204,653 acres. However, on
Jan. 15, just days before Trump left
offi ce, that was increased to 3.4 mil-
lion acres, more than 16 times the
original amount.
Then-Interior Secretary Bern-
hardt determined the larger exclu-
sions would not result in the spotted
owl going extinct.
But in the agency’s latest revi-
sion, it determined that Bernhardt
and others “overestimated the prob-
ability that the northern spotted owl
population would persist into the
foreseeable future if a large portion
of critical habitat was removed and
subsequent timber harvest were to
occur on those lands.”
“The (USFWS) fi nds in this
fi nal rule that while extinction of
the northern spotted owl due to the
removal of large areas of critical
habitat in the January exclusions
rule would not be immediate, its
eventual extinction due to reduced
critical habitat would be a reason-
able scientifi c certainty,” the agency
stated.
Of the excluded critical habitat
under the revised rule, 184,133 acres
are managed by the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation — including 172,712
acres of Oregon and California Rail-
road Revested Lands — and 20,161
acres of tribal land recently trans-
ferred under the Western Oregon
Tribal Fairness Act.
A coalition of environmental
groups, which had sued to block the
January 2020 ruling, largely praised
the Biden administration’s revision
but expressed concern about remov-
ing any critical habitat for the spot-
ted owl.
“Removing protections for over 3
million acres of forests would have
had devastating consequences,” said
Alex Craven, a senior campaign
representative for the Sierra Club.
“While this fi nal rule is a step back
from the brink, science and our cli-
mate tell us that now is the time to
be safeguarding more old growth
habitat — not less.”
Ranchers fear proposed national monument near Painted Hills would limit grazing
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley
and Ron Wyden introduced
legislation Nov. 3 to create
a national monument at Sut-
ton Mountain in Wheeler
County, Central Oregon.
The proposal is widely
supported by conservation
groups, including the Oregon
Natural Desert Association
and the Conservation Alli-
ance, but some ranchers are
worried the bill would limit
grazing.
S 3144 would establish
a national monument on
66,000 acres of public land
encircling Sutton Mountain,
a fault block mountain ris-
ing above the Painted Hills.
The hills would remain part
of the John Day Fossil Beds
National Monument.
The monument’s purpose,
according to the senators, is
to increase the area’s “wild-
fi re resiliency,” block mining
claims, boost tourism to sup-
port the local economy and
conserve the region “for pres-
ent and future generations.”
Although Merkley and
Wyden say their bill “contin-
ues to allow grazing,” agri-
cultural advocacy groups say
it could reduce grazing in the
area.
“This (bill) was just
released, so I don’t have a lot
of details at all, but it is my
understanding that the legis-
lation could reduce grazing
opportunities without alter-
native grazing opportunities
being provided,” said Mary
Anne Cooper, vice president
of government aff airs for the
Oregon Farm Bureau.
Experts say the bill could
reduce AUMs, or animal unit
months, through a land trans-
fer between the federal gov-
ernment and City of Mitch-
ell. An AUM is the amount of
forage needed by an “animal
unit” — defi ned as a mature
1,000-pound cow and her
unweaned calf – in a month.
The bill’s current text also
does not clearly authorize
ranchers to access existing
grazing allotments via rights
of way or other access points.
Some local ranchers are
frustrated.
“I don’t really think they
need to add any extra crap
to us,” said Doris Fitzger-
ald, 83, who has raised cat-
tle with her husband, Joe, in
the nearby town of Mitchell
since 1956.
Joe Fitzgerald, 88, agreed.
“I don’t approve,” he said.
“It’s already protected.”
Thousands
of
acres
around Sutton Mountain are
already protected as Wil-
derness Study Areas man-
aged by the Bureau of Land
Management.
The region has long
been a target for further
conservation.
In 1996, according to
Sara Hottman, Merkley’s
spokeswoman, the BLM rec-
ommended Sutton Moun-
tain for a future wilderness
declaration, which Hott-
man said “was not imme-
diately embraced by the
community.”
Merkley has been working
to increase protections since
2014, Hottman said, although
the senator’s previous bills to
create a federal wilderness at
Sutton Mountain died in Con-
gress in 2015 and 2019. This
latest approach — to desig-
nate a national monument —
is a new tactic.
According to the bill’s text,
existing livestock grazing
could continue at the monu-
ment, but it must be “sustain-
able grazing” that is “in accor-
dance with applicable federal
law” and is approved by the
Interior Department secre-
tary. The bill doesn’t defi ne
“sustainable.”
Cooper, of the Oregon
Farm Bureau, said previous
national monument desig-
nations have led to grazing
reductions, such as at Steens
Mountain in southern Oregon.
“Ranchers near Steens
were made promises that
weren’t delivered on,” said
Cooper.
Crook-Wheeler County
Farm Bureau President Tim
Deboodt said he’d like to see
if politicians can name a sin-
gle national monument desig-
nation that hasn’t resulted in
reduced grazing. He said he
can’t.
Deboodt said he’s also
troubled that he fi rst heard
of the proposal on the radio
Nov. 8 rather than from the
senators.
Will Homer, chief opera-
tions offi cer for Painted Hills
Natural Beef in nearby Fos-
sil, Ore., also fi rst heard of
the plan through the media,
when contacted by the Capi-
tal Press.
“I was not aware of any-
thing going on over there,” he
wrote in an email.
Hottman,
Merkley’s
spokeswoman, and Hank
Stern, Wyden’s spokesman,
said both senators held pub-
lic town halls and included
in conversations the ranch-
ers who would be directly
impacted.
Cooper, of the Farm
Bureau, confi rmed that
Merkley included key ranch-
ers in conversations, but said
that “it sounds like Merkley
didn’t incorporate enough
of their feedback into the
proposal.”
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