Save-the-spotted-owl court action started
Group demands federal protection against habitat logging that threatens the species' survival

Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The Sierra Legal Defence Fund has launched a Federal Court action demanding that the federal government protect B.C's dwindling population of spotted owls, which it says is in danger of being exterminated by logging.

The defence fund is representing four groups -- the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the David Suzuki Foundation, ForestEthics and Environmental Defence -- in the action.

The suit is seeking a judicial review of the federal environment minister's failure "to exercise his statutory duty to recommend that the governor in council make an emergency order to provide for the protection of the northern spotted owl, a listed endangered wildlife species."

The suit claims that under the Species at Risk Act, the minister must step in to protect an endangered species.

According to the suit, the spotted owl lives in old growth forests, but is losing its habitat due to logging that the B.C. government refuses to curtail.

Before logging, there were believed to be 500 pairs of birds living in the forests, but a 2005 survey detected only 23 owls -- six pairs and 11 single owls, according to the suit.

It said that some logging companies have stopped logging in spotted owl habitat areas, but the B.C. government, through its B.C. Small Timber Sales program, continues to log in sensitive areas and is now the largest logger of spotted owl habitat.

gbellett@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2005