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(CN) — The Biden administration announced Friday it will delay the implementation of a rule that would dramatically cut the critical habitat of the northern spotted owl, the first step in the potential reversal of one of the final environmental rollbacks of the Trump administration.
One week before Inauguration Day, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife published a rule that eliminated about 3.5 million acres of land, mostly in Oregon, from federal protections. The reduction was massive, much larger than the approximately 280,000 acres the agency had proposed to withdraw in August 2020.
Now under the aegis of the Biden administration, Fish and Wildlife noted on Friday that the considerable difference between the proposed and final rule and the lack of public input on the matter was sufficient to pause the implementation of the rule.
“We are considering whether the public had appropriate notice in the proposed rule such that the determinations made in the final rule were a ‘logical outgrowth’ of the proposed rule,” the agency said in an unpublished rule. “We note that several members of Congress expressed concerns regarding the additional exclusions, among other concerns, which they identified in a Feb. 2, 2021, letter to the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior seeking review of the rule.”
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The Trump Administration has cut designated critical habitat for the northern spotted owl by millions of acres in Oregon, Washington and California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that it would remove 3.4 million acres of critical habitat protections for the bird, including all of what’s known as the O&C Lands, which is big timber territory in Western Oregon.
It’s the latest jab at the northern spotted owl on the president’s way out the door.
The spotted owl is currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service has said the bird warrants uplisting to “endangered” because of continued population declines. The spotted owl population decreased approximately 3.8% annually rangewide from 1985 to 2013.
However, the agency refused to uplist the spotted owl at the end of last year, saying other species took higher priority. That decision is facing a legal challenge led by the Center for Biological Diversity.
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