The habitat of the northern spotted owl would be impacted by the sale of 18,000 acres of timber land, which is a violation of the Endangered Species Act, an Oregon District Court judge ruled.
The News-Review in Roseburg, Oregon, reported that a portion of those timber sales is located on the scar of a forest fire, known as the 2019 Milepost 97 Fire near Canyonville.
The ruling, according to the paper's Website, was contrary to a claim from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which claimed that the harvest of timber on those sales, including old-growth stands, would not harm the endangered owl species.
In the ruling, District Court Justice Ann Aiken stated that the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to properly investigate the effects of the East Evans Creek and Milepost 97 fires on the proposed timber sales and the impact of those fires on northern spotted owl habitat.
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