U.S. Judge Tells Wildlife Service to Protect Douglas Fir, Spotted Owl

SAN FRANCISCO —  A federal judge issued a ruling that may prohibit logging of remaining old-growth Douglas fir throughout Northern California and the Pacific Northwest and force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare a species of owl to be endangered, environmentalists and timber industry spokesmen said Friday.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly of Seattle gives the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 90 days to justify its decision to omit the Northern spotted owl from its list of endangered or threatened species.

Zilly concluded that the agency’s action last December to deny endangered status to the owl was “arbitrary” and “entirely contrary” to the findings of its own experts.

“Here, the service disregarded all the expert opinion on population viability, including that of its own experts, that the owl is facing extinction, and instead merely asserted its expertise in support of its conclusion,” Zilly wrote in the opinion released Thursday.

Mark Shaffer, a biologist appointed by the Fish and Wildlife Service to study the owl, found that “continued old-growth harvesting is likely to lead to the extinction of the subspecies in the foreseeable future.” Shaffer’s finding “argues strongly for listing the subspecies as threatened or endangered at this time.”

The ruling is significant for its potential effect on both the spotted owl and old-growth Douglas fir. Environmentalists believe that there may be as few as 5,000 of the birds left and that they thrive only in old-growth Douglas fir stands.

Environmentalists also say there may be as few as 2 million to 3 million acres of old-growth Douglas fir remaining. Most of it is on national forest land. The Forest Service and other federal agencies sell timber companies the right to log the trees.

If the owl ultimately is listed as endangered, federal agencies “could not authorize activities that are likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the spotted owl,” noted James Kilbourne, a member of the Justice Department unit that defended the Interior Department.

Jim Craine, a timber industry spokesman, predicted that if the owl is deemed to be endangered, logging on forest land could be cut back as much as 30% annually at a cost to the industry and others of $150 million a year.

Old-growth fir is on Forest Service land throughout Northern California, and what remains is “the best of the best,” Craine said. He maintained that spotted owls are not an endangered species. “It’s going to cost a bundle and it’s going to make some people an endangered species,” Craine said.