Spotted-owl plans flunk peer review by scientists

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The Bush administration's plans for saving the northern spotted owl from extinction have flunked a peer review by scientists.

Under a contract with the administration, the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists' Union said the government did not consider the best available science before making room for more logging in old-growth forests. The organizations reviewed both a draft recovery plan and a proposal to reduce critical habitat for the owl by 22 percent.

The two proposals are key to plans to bring back clear-cut logging in old-growth forests on U.S. Bureau of Land Management forests in Western Oregon in order to restore dwindling timber payments to counties.

The reviewers of the recovery plan said there appears to be a scientific consensus that it would not only fail to bring back owl populations but also would result in downgrading its status from threatened to endangered.

The spotted owl was declared a threatened species in 1990 due primarily to heavy logging in the old-growth forest where it nests and feeds.

Owl numbers have continued to decline, recent research shows.

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Joan Jewett said the peer review would be considered before producing a final owl-recovery plan and critical-habitat designations.