'Faulty' science used by Trump appointees to cut owl habitat

[Judi Lynn]

By MATTHEW BROWN and GILLIAN FLACCUS
November 9, 2021

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Political appointees in the Trump administration relied on faulty science to justify stripping habitat protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, U.S. wildlife officials said Tuesday as they struck down a rule that would have opened millions of acres of West Coast forest to potential logging.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reversed a decision made five days before President Donald Trump left office to drastically shrink so-called critical habitat for the spotted owl. The small, reclusive bird has been in decline for decades as old-growth forests were cut in Oregon, Washington and California.

Government biologists objected to the changes under Trump and warned they would put the spotted owl on a path to extinction, documents show.

But Trump’s Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and former Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith dismissed those concerns — instead adopting a plan to lift restrictions on more land than even the timber industry had sought.

More:
https://apnews.com/article/science-business-california-forests-oregon-48c1dc3a59bda47c178437d6b1e538bd

[jls4561]

1. The goppers are the death party

Doesn’t matter what the species is.

[Ocelot II]

2. Name something TFG's administration did that wasn't faulty.

[jpak]

3. "We'll be up to our ears in owls and no jobs for anyone "

Fuck Bush sr.

Yup

[crud]

4. Just add in the number pigeons and no one will notice...