REPRESENTING BUSINESS ISSUES
NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL
Bentz Calls Out Biden Administration’s Failure to Protect Rural Communities and Northern Spotted Owl from Wildfire Washington, D.C. | April 8, 2021 | Press Release T oday, Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) led on a congressional letter, signed by 9 House Republicans, urging the U.S. Department of Interior to
“The 2021 designation aligns critical habitat for the NSO with a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision and with federal environmental law. It represents an opportunity to move past antiquated, ineffective habitat policies that have stymied critical federal forest restoration activities by focusing on the real threats to this species and its habitat, while supporting American jobs and rural communities across three Western states. Science and the law have changed since the NSO was listed 30 years ago, and [the Department of the Interior] needs to adapt to this as well,” the Members wrote in the letter. “I thank my fellow Members of Congress who have joined me in fighting for rural communities and the health of our forests,” said Bentz. “The immediate implementation of this rule means we can sustainably manage a significant
immediately implement a federal rule previously published on January 15, 2021, revising the designation of the critical habitat of the Northern Spotted Owl (NSO). The rule was delayed by the Biden Administration on March 1, preventing it from going into effect on March 16, 2021. If implemented, the 2021 rule would better allow federal agencies to implement the NSO Recovery Plan. The plan calls for the use of active forest management tools to mitigate the risks of wildfire on 1.1 million acres of federal lands in the Pacific Northwest that were illegally designated as “critical habitat” by the Obama Administration (Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service et al.).
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The Business Review | April 2021
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