Bush Admin Moves Toward Dropping Murrelet Protections

Bush Administration Moves Toward Dropping Murrelet Protections

Politics trumps science as government seeks to open rare old-growth forests
to logging.

September 1st, 2004

Contact Info:
Susan Ash, Portland Audubon Society,503-504-7151
Kristen Boyles, Earthjustice, 206-343-7340 x33
Dave Werntz, NEA, 360-319-9949
Doug Heiken, ONRC, 541-344-0675
Cynthia Elkins, EPIC, 707-923-2931
Noah Greenwald, CBD, 503-243-6643

Print-Friendly Version

Portland, OR-- In a move that heralds increased coastal old-growth logging,
the Bush administration today redefined the population of marbled murrelets
in Washington, Oregon, and northern California in preparation for removing
its Endangered Species Act protections. Washington, D.C., officials
announced today that they will no longer consider Pacific Northwest
murrelets as isolated from murrelets in Canada and Alaska, blatently
disregarding recent recommendations by independent, private-sector
scientists, as well as their own scientists, to keep federal protections in
place.

³The report of the scientific review team could not have been more
compelling in its call for continued protection for murrelets, and its
conclusions that these birds are on the path to extinction,² said Susan Ash,
Conservation Director with the Portland Audubon Society. ³Once again, the
Bush administration is doing the bidding of its campaign contributors ­
ignoring sound science in order to serve up more precious old-growth forests
to the timber industry.²

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to conduct a status review of the
old-growth dependent birds in response to a timber-industry lawsuit that
sought to remove those protections. EDAW, a private environmental consulting
firm in Seattle, conducted the scientific review of the birds¹ status over
the past year.

The status review, released in March, recommends keeping the murrelet¹s
current population status, stating that ³marbled murrelets should be
considered to include at least three distinct populations: (1) the Aleutian
Islands or northern population; (2) the Alaska Peninsula to Puget Sound or
central population; and (3) the California, Oregon, and western Washington
or southern population. In April, the Fish and Wildlife Service¹s Regional
Office in Portland confirmed that the Pacific Northwest murrelets deserve
federal protection.

³Everyone agrees that marbled murrelets may soon be gone forever from the
coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest,² said Dave Werntz, Science
Director at the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, ³This announcement is a slap
in the face of sound science and open, credible decision-making.²

In 1997, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that the marbled murrelet
population in the Pacific Northwest was declining four to seven percent a
year. More recent demographic models indicate that populations in
Washington, Oregon, and California are still declining rapidly and will be
extinct within the next 50-100 years.

³Apparently, the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Bush administration no
longer protects species, but simply presides over their extinction,² said
Kristen Boyles, staff attorney with Earthjustice. ³This twisting of law and
science for political ends has got to stop.²

Marbled murrelets are shy, robin-sized seabirds that use old-growth forests
for nesting and rearing their young. First protected in 1992 after
widespread logging of their old-growth forest habitat, marbled murrelets are
listed as a threatened species. A 2002 lawsuit filed by the timber industry
challenged the marbled murrelet listing, as well as its habitat protections.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will be reviewing the murrelet¹s critical
habitat protections over the next several years.