Bush administration erred in ruling on murrelet protection, agency says

The Fish and Wildlife assessment could adversely impact logging interests.

Federal wildlife officials acknowledged this week that the Bush administration erred four years ago in a key element of its ruling that the marbled murrelet, an imperiled seabird, does not deserve federal protection in the Northwest.

The 2004 finding overruled the recommendation of biologists in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regional office in Portland.

The timber industry used the finding to argue for dropping murrelets in Oregon, Washington and California from the list of federally protected species, which could help speed logging.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said this week that it will consider the industry's arguments but said the analysis supporting the 2004 finding was flawed.

That means the agency could decide the birds in the Northwest deserve protection after all. The agency could go further and find that the species also needs protection in Alaska, where numbers have declined 70 percent in the past 25 years.

Protection for murrelets, which fly inland to nest on the mossy branches of old trees, slowed logging on federal lands in the 1990s. But the protection hinges on a key question: Are Pacific Northwest murrelets distinct enough from more numerous birds in Canada and Alaska to warrant their own safeguards?

In 2004, federal biologists in Portland said they were. But administration officials in Washington, D.C., reversed that finding, concluding that new wildlife safeguards in Canada removed any legal basis for protecting birds in Oregon, Washington and California as a separate, discrete population.

Timber industry groups seized on that finding, petitioning the service this year to drop protection for Northwest murrelets. The agency published a notice in the Federal Register on Thursday agreeing to consider the industry petition.

But in the same notice, the agency said the 2004 finding was flawed. Officials said it compared current levels of protection for the murrelet in Canada and the United States, rather than levels that would exist if the murrelet lost protection in the United States.

"The service believes that the latter approach is more rational," the notice said.

The new thinking emerged from an internal review of the 2004 finding by Interior Department lawyers, said Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman David Patte.

Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resources Council in Portland, said the timber group hopes the service will review all new science involving murrelets. For instance, the agency should look closely at how ocean conditions affect populations, he said.

The timber industry could face an unwelcome surprise, however, because the agency will review the murrelet's status across its entire range, including Alaska. Murrelet populations in Alaska do not fall under the Endangered Species Act, but they are declining sharply.

The agency could conclude that federal protection also should include those birds. The reviews are expected to take about a year.

Michael Milstein: 503-294-7689; michaelmilstein@ news.oregonian.com For environment news, go to oregonlive.com/environment