EPIC Win! Federal Judge Stops Logging Near Owl Nests
A federal judge has struck down a U.S. Forest Service plan to log the forested ridges above Lake Siskiyou, one of the region's most popular recreation destinations near the city of Mt. Shasta. In a ruling issued on Wednesday, Judge Dena Coggins of the Eastern District of California vacated a “Biological Opinion” issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, finding the deficiencies in the document to be sufficiently meaningful that the document needed to be thrown out. For those paying close attention, this may seem like deja vu: Didn’t the court already decide that these documents were flawed? Yes, but despite an earlier decision that found the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's review of the project's impact on northern spotted owls was “arbitrary and capricious,” the Forest Service sought to move forward with logging anyway.
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The South Fork Sacramento Project would cut more than 8,000 acres in a 16,000-acre area and tear through the nesting grounds of two of the longest continuously occupied spotted owl territories in the California Cascades. These two territories are uniquely important to the broader regional population as they serve as a “source” population for the whole region. Wildlife officials knew the project would adversely affect habitat, likely cause the incidental “take” of twelve owls, which affects nearly a quarter of the region's entire owl population, yet approved it, despite that knowledge, finding it “not likely to jeopardize” the species.
On August 19th, Judge Coggins ruled against the Forest Service, finding that the agency’s claim that other source populations existed to cushion the blow, she wrote, “is not supported by evidence in the administrative record.” The court called it what it was: a legal failure to connect the facts to the conclusion, and ruled the Forest Service's approval unlawful. Despite this ruling, the Forest Service sought to log anyway. EPIC and our allies were back in court, this time to request a clear direction from the court: vacate the decision and make clear that they cannot proceed.
Northern spotted owls are down to roughly 3,000 or fewer individuals across their entire range, and the population has been shrinking for decades under the weight of habitat loss, worsening wildfires, and competition from the invasive barred owl. The owl territories are not just old nest sites; they're breeding source populations that help sustain owls across the wider Cascades and Klamath region. The surrounding forest also forms one of the few remaining wildlife corridors where species like the Pacific fisher and Pacific marten can cross Interstate 5, making it a rare, irreplaceable link for wildlife moving through Northern California.
EPIC thanks our wonderful attorneys, Meriel Darzen and Oliver Stiefel from the Crag Law Center for their excellent work
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