Relief for the Owl

The New York Times weighs in on the Obama administration breathing new life into forest science in the Northwest.

The bald eagle aside, few birds have wielded as much influence on public policy as the northern spotted owl, once famously called “that little furry-feathery guy” by the first President Bush. Formally listed as an endangered species in 1990, the owl triggered a series of court cases that persuaded President Bill Clinton in 1994 to protect much of the old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest — the bird’s habitat — from timber companies.

Though the Clinton plan allowed some logging, it was considerably more favorable to the owl and its habitat than it was to industry. Bowing to industry pressure, the Bush administration decided last year to double the allowable logging on 2.6 million acres of prime owl habitat in Oregon and to rescind other protections.

On Thursday, the interior secretary, Ken Salazar, announced that he would reverse those decisions, reaffirming the Clinton plan. This is an important victory for the owl and for the irreplaceable old-growth forests where it lives, which is partly what this fight has been about from the beginning. It is also a victory for the Endangered Species Act. The Bush administration repeatedly sought to ignore or undermine that law, but never so obviously as when it refused to consult its own scientists about the impact of increased logging on the owl as well as other imperiled species, like salmon.

Having rescued the Clinton plan, Mr. Salazar has now promised to update it to see whether modest logging can go forward without imperiling the owl, whose habitat has been further threatened by competition from a more aggressive cousin, the barred owl. The interior secretary has pledged to listen to his scientists at every step of the way. This will be a welcome change.