The California spotted owl is the last of four native Sierra Nevada species to receive Endangered Species Act protection in the culmination of a 30-year legal fight.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it will protect the California spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act. The owls have seen their numbers dwindle because of logging and climate change, among other threats.
We are writing on behalf of Sierra Forest Legacy, a project of the Tides Center; Center for Biological Diversity; and Defenders of Wildlife to notify you of violations of Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), 16 U.S.C. § 1533, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) in determining that listing the California spotted owl under the ESA is not warranted. See 84 Fed. Reg. 60371 (Nov. 8, 2019). This letter is provided pursuant to the sixty-day notice requirement of the citizen suit provision of the ESA, 16 U.S.C. § 1540(g).
The California spotted owl, a cousin of its more famous cousin, the northern spotted owl, has declined in numbers as logging has accelerated in the national forests of southern California and the Sierra Nevada. Earthjustice brought a series of lawsuits aimed at forcing the U.S. Forest Service to adopt meaningful protections for the owl’s old…
Bush administration increases logging and ignores science
Make Every Day Earth Day.
In honor of Earth Day and the fight for the wild spaces we love, the air we breathe, the water we drink — any gift you make for the month of April will be matched $2:$1!