SCB Requests Environmental Impact Statement of Active Forestry in Spotted Owl Habitat
April 2, 2012. Calling for continued science-based protection for threatened northern spotted owls, the Society for Conservation Biology, The Wildlife Society, and the American Ornithologists’ Union joined together today in asking the Department of the Interior (DOI) to reconsider its proposal for commercial timber harvesting in the Pacific Northwest.
In a letter to DOI Secretary Ken Salazar, SCB, TWS, and AOU called for a full environmental impact statement (EIS) and peer-reviewed scientific assessment on the potential impacts of a DOI proposal that would allow substantial commercial timber harvesting in the critical habitat of threatened Northern Spotted Owls in the Pacific Northwest. The societies are recommending that the EIS identify a range of experimental forestry techniques, appropriate scientific methodologies to assess those techniques, and a scientific process for evaluating impacts on Northern Spotted Owls.
Read the letter to Secretary Salazar HERE.
Read the press release that calls for a full EIS HERE.
May 30, 2012 Update
The FWS has denied SCB's request for an EIS to fully evaluate the impacts of active forestry on the Northern Spotted Owl. SCB will continue to urge the FWS, and all the Federal land management agencies to employ a precautionary approach towards managing their lands in order to fully protect the Northern Spotted Owl. You may read the FWS's reply HERE.