Press Releases
The timber industry is expressing frustration over today’s announcement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that the comment period on its Northern Spotted Owl Draft Revised Recovery Plan will not be extended beyond December 15. The original comment deadline was next Monday, November 15.
Portland, OR - Today, the Obama Administration released a revised Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan. The new plan, prepared by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), would replace a Recovery Plan adopted in 2008. The Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, announced his intention to redraft the 2008 plan last summer as he withdrew the Bureau of Land Management’s Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) for Oregon’s O&C forests. Eighteen months later, the Service has made available for public comment a replacement Recovery Plan.
Today, the Obama Administration is expected to release the findings of the Western Oregon Task Force. The Task Force, a special interdisciplinary team, was announced by Interior Secretary Salazar on October 14, 2009 following the Administration’s decision to scrap the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR). Unfortunately, instead of offering a plan for moving forward in the absence of the WOPR, the report largely focuses on more bureaucracy and is a tacit endorsement of do-nothing forestry at its worst.
