Lujan to Leave Without Owl Plan

Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. said Thursday he will leave office without approving a plan to save the northern spotted owl, leaving the controversial decision to the Clinton Administration. “I did not wish to take an action that might bind the hands of the next secretary of the interior,” Lujan said in a prepared statement.

Environmentalists and the timber industry applauded Lujan’s decision to leave the decision to Interior Secretary-designate Bruce Babbitt.

The Fish and Wildlife Service in 1990 declared the Pacific Northwest owl a threatened species. Lujan has opposed draft plans, saying logging cutbacks proposed as a way to protect the owl’s habitat and rebuild its population would hurt the timber industry.