Critical Spotted Owl Habitat Reduction Increased 17 Times Above Original Proposal

When originally announced last year, the federal government said it wanted to reduce the spotted owl habitat by 205,000 acres. However, as the implementation moved forward the owl’s habitat reduction increased 17 times above the original 205,000 acres to 3.47 million acres. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service instead of leaving more than 9 million acres in the owl’s critical habit, decreased it to about 6 million acres by excluding federal lands that were previously allocated for logging. The timber industry and environmentalists both expect a legal battle to ensue over the change in acreage from the original proposal to revised acreage numbers.