Judge offers lifeline to spotted owls near planned logging project

A federal judge in California ruled that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service illegally cleared a Mount Shasta-area logging project without adequately explaining why removing an estimated 12 northern spotted owls and up to 10,000 acres of habitat wouldn't jeopardize the threatened species.

U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins found the agency's 2023 biological opinion never identified what alternative source populations could compensate for the loss of roughly 21% of the estimated owl population in two key recovery units, calling the conclusion arbitrary and capricious. The area includes the Scott and Soapstone territories, among the longest continuously occupied owl sites since the species was listed in 1990.

Plaintiffs, including the Klamath Forest Alliance and Crag Law Center, argued the California populations are especially critical because owls in Washington and Oregon are functionally extinct. Coggins did not vacate the project outright; the parties must meet September 1 to negotiate a remedy, and neither the Forest Service nor Fish & Wildlife Service responded to requests for comment.

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