Feds fail spotted owl — again
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
Tell the government to
identify ALL necessary critical habitat
Hi Paov,
One wild-born spotted owl remains in Canada. But apparently, that’s still not enough for the federal government to commit to saving its habitat.
Decades of logging spotted owl habitat has nearly eliminated the species in this country. After years of delay, the federal government has finally released an amended spotted owl recovery strategy for public consultation. Yet it still refuses to correctly identify the owls’ critical habitat — a key step to protecting it.
In 2021, the government released draft maps, based on science, of the critical habitat the spotted owl needs to be free from industrial exploitation — to survive. But the new government strategy and maps have been completely gutted. Its newly amended draft recovery strategy completely ignores the owls’ true habitat needs. Most of the mapped “core critical habitat,” or habitat that can trigger protection under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA), has been placed into already protected areas. Meanwhile, the majority of mapped “potential future critical habitat,” or habitat that remains at risk from logging, overlaps with places that are currently unprotected. It’s clear these maps were made to avoid putting an end to logging of old-growth forest home.
Core critical habitat in these proposed maps is fragmented and not enough to ensure the survival and recovery of the owls. Under the SARA, recovery strategies and habitat maps must be science-based and use the best available information and data. These do not.
Write my letter!
For decades we’ve been fighting to save the spotted owl. Finally, captive-bred owls were released into the wild last year. While they struggle to survive, the government wants to oversee the destruction of their habitat. We have until March 27 to tell them no. This isn’t good enough for the spotted owl or any of the species that share their ancient forest home.
For the wild,
Charlotte Dawe
Conservation and Policy Campaigner
Wilderness Committee
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