White House Moves to Cut Back Logging Curbs

The Clinton Administration on Friday proposed to relax logging regulations on privately owned lands in the Northwest, sparking renewed controversy over efforts to protect the endangered northern spotted owl.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will develop a special rule that in most cases would shrink the area surrounding a spotted owl nest that loggers must leave untouched.

While “owl circles” on privately owned land currently extend as far as 1,000 acres around a nest, the proposed new guideline would limit the protected area to 70 acres.

The owl has been at the center of a long controversy between loggers and environmentalists in the Northwest, with environmentlists saying logging robs the bird of the unique old-growth forest habitat it needs to survive.

The Administration acknowledged that under the new guidelines, spotted owls could be inadvertently harmed or killed.

The proposal announced Friday is the result of a promise made by President Clinton at a forestry summit held in Portland, Ore., in April. At that time, Clinton vowed to “break the deadlock” that had brought timber harvests to a virtual standstill.

The plan the government subsequently announced would protect the owls on 7.5 million acres of federally owned forests.

Friday’s announcement was designed to redeem Clinton’s promise to ease restrictions on logging of private lands.

The rule would apply to private lands throughout Washington and Oregon but not to California, where the state has provided for protections that are slightly more stringent than those proposed by the Administration.

Before the federal rule becomes final, the Interior Department must draft an environmental impact statement and conduct a series of public hearings.

The Administration expects to propose the change formally in March when it presents a federal judge in Seattle with a comprehensive owl-protection plan.

The proposal also calls for 10 “areas of special emphasis” where the Interior Department would establish slightly tighter restrictions on logging.

In those areas--including Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, home of the only temperate rain forest in North America--logging would be allowed as long as 40% of the area retained tree cover.

Assistant Interior Secretary George Frampton on Friday defended the proposal, saying it will provide landowners, including several large timber companies, more certainty in drawing up their plans for timber harvesting.

He added that since the bulk of spotted owl habitat is on federal lands, the relaxed rule would still provide protections to the endangered bird while following through on a promise by the President to ease some logging restrictions.

But Mike Francis of the National Wilderness Society said the proposal “is based on the faulty assumption that the Administration’s plan for federal lands will adequately protect owls on federal lands. We think that is not the case. In order to do what they would like to do for private landowner, they have to be providing maximum protection for the owl on federal lands, and they’re far from that.”

The timber industry, which has sought a relaxation of logging rules for private lands, hailed the proposal.

“Relief for state and private landowners in the region is vital to avoid a worsening of the severe social and economic impacts already occurring,” said Mark Rey, vice president of the American Forest and Paper Assn.