"PORTLAND, Ore. — Political appointees in the Trump administration relied on faulty science to justify stripping habitat protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, U.S. wildlife officials said Tuesday as they struck down a rule that would have opened millions of acres of West Coast forest to potential logging.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reversed a decision made five days before President Donald Trump left office to drastically shrink so-called critical habitat for the spotted owl. The small, reclusive bird has been in decline for decades as old-growth forests were cut in Oregon, Washington and California.

Government biologists objected to the changes under Trump and warned they would put the spotted owl on a path to extinction, documents show.

But Trump’s Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and former Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith dismissed those concerns — instead adopting a plan to lift restrictions on more land than even the timber industry had sought."

Matthew Brown and Gillian Flaccus report for the Associated Press November 9, 2021. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Victory For Spotted Owl As Trump-Era Plan To Reduce Habitat Is Struck Down" (Guardian) [3]

"Feds Flip Trump Ruling, Expand Spotted Owl Critical Habitat" (E&E News) [4]