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Scientists, members of Congress object to politicized spotted owl recovery plan

October 2, 2007

Today, 113 scientists and 23 Democratic members of Congress called on the Interior Department to scrap a controversial draft recovery plan that would reduce federally protected habitat for the northern spotted owl and start from scratch to create a new plan using sound science.

In letters to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne sent this morning, the groups say that the draft recovery plan should be completely redone because it distorts scientific studies to justify opening old-growth forests to logging and could have been politicized by Interior Department officials like disgraced Bush Administration appointee Julie MacDonald, who resigned in May.

“As scientists with backgrounds in population ecology, wildlife and endangered species management, natural resource management and forest ecosystems, we are greatly concerned that, according to scientific peer review recently conducted by owl experts and three of the nation’s leading scientific societies, much of this science was ignored in the published draft recovery plan for the northern spotted owl,” the scientists wrote in their letter.  “Based on our understanding of the ecology of the spotted owl, we see no scientific basis for either reducing habitat protections for the owl – as currently proposed under Option 1 of the recovery plan – or departing from a conservation strategy that is rooted in the fixed reserves of the NWFP [Northwest Forest Plan] such as Option 2.”

The letter authored by U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, and 22 other members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-W.V.), the chairman of the resources panel, read, “These peer reviews underscore concerns raised during a May 9 hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee. At this hearing, evidence was presented that showed the recovery plan may have been tampered with by high-ranking officials within the Administration, including former Interior Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald who, for a time, was a member of the ‘Washington Oversight Committee’ that apparently instructed the recovery team to develop options not based on sound science.”

In April, the Bush Administration released its draft recovery plan for the northern spotted owl, which has been listed as threatened on the Endangered Species List since 1990.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) designated critical owl habitat in 1992 and since 1994 the northern spotted owl has been protected under the National Forest Management Act in over 7 million acres of federal land in Washington, Oregon and California by the Clinton Administration’s Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). 

The draft recovery plan released earlier this year includes two options, each of which would reduce by one-quarter to one-third the amount of old-growth forests currently protected for the owl and hundreds of other species that rely on such habitat.  If enacted, it and other policy changes proposed by the Bush Administration effectively would dismantle the NWFP, the landmark agreement that largely ended the Northwest timber wars of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Two of the nation’s preeminent scientific societies – Society for Conservation Biology and American Ornithologists’ Union – and three leading owl scientists decried the draft recovery plan in peer reviews done at the behest of FWS.  A separate, independent review conducted by The Wildlife Society concluded that “the plan would reverse much of the progress made over the past 20 years to protect this species and the habitat upon which it depends.”  Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency voiced concerns this August that the draft recovery plan could negatively impact water quality and the agency’s ability to implement the Clean Water Act.

“This is classic bait and switch,” commented Inslee, the lead author of the letter signed by House members.  “The administration is trying to open up old growth to logging under the guise of protecting the spotted owl.”

According to Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, chief scientist for the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy, and member of the spotted owl recovery plan who testified at the May 9 House Natural Resources Committee hearing, “The scientific community has spoken in unison on the numerous flaws in the draft spotted owl recovery plan, and is calling on Secretary Kempthorne to redo the plan as part of efforts to reform the Department’s numerous mishandlings of endangered species decisions.” 

“We are grateful to Congressman Inslee and the other Representatives who sent a clear message to this Administration that they will not stand idly by while beltway insiders strong arm scientists and threatened species are permitted to wink out of existence.  The old growth habitat that is crucial to the owl's survival must be protected. We hope that the Administration heeds the call of Congress and pulls together a recovery plan that will ensure that the owl, its critical habitat, and scientific integrity, are preserved,” added Director of Forest Programs Caitlin Hills at the American Lands Alliance. 

FWS is taking public comment on the draft recovery plan through October 5.  The federal agency is required under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to develop recovery plans for federally listed species.  Agency policy also requires recovery plans to be based on the best available science in order to recover a species to the point where it no longer requires federal protection.  

Read the letter members of Congress sent to Interior.

Read the letter scientists sent to Interior.