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Obama won't defend Bush's spotted owl cuts
Mercury News ^ | 04/01/2009 11:11:35 AM PDT | By JEFF BARNARD AP Environmental Writer

Posted on 04/02/2009 7:54:10 AM PDT by meandog

GRANTS PASS, Ore.—The Obama administration has notified a federal court that it will not defend the Bush administration's decision to cut protections for the northern spotted owl, a threatened bird whose need for old growth forests has been at the center of long-standing battles over logging in the Northwest. In a motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., lawyers for the Department of Interior said they based the decision on an inspector general's report finding potential political interference in owl protections by a former deputy assistant Interior secretary, Julie MacDonald.

The motion is the latest in a series of actions in lawsuits over Bush administration plans to cut protections for threatened and endangered species. Similar motions were filed recently in cases involving Gunnison sage grouse, Canada lynx, and bull trout, whose habitat needs stand in the way of grazing, logging and mining on federal lands.

MacDonald resigned in May 2007. The Interior Department's inspector general found evidence of political interference in 20 decisions involving threatened and endangered species and said MacDonald was involved in 13.

"It is very clear they are drawing a line saying, 'We are not going to have anything to do with that kind of political meddling,' " said Todd True, an attorney for Earthjustice, which represents conservation groups that intervened in the case.

The Wildlife Society, the Society for Conservation

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; US: Oregon; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: owl

1 posted on 04/02/2009 7:54:10 AM PDT by meandog
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To: meandog

I bet they’re tasty.


2 posted on 04/02/2009 7:55:40 AM PDT by hsalaw
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To: meandog

I bet Obama will defend and promote the wildlife officials who planted cougar hair.


3 posted on 04/02/2009 7:58:03 AM PDT by palmer (Cooperating with Obama = helping him extend the depression and implement socialism.)
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To: meandog
Its as though Obama's sole concern when formulating policy is 'what was Bush's policy?'

And they call the GOP the party of "no".

4 posted on 04/02/2009 7:59:18 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: hsalaw

Drool Drool!


5 posted on 04/02/2009 7:59:53 AM PDT by bikerman (Obama lied;the Country died.)
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To: meandog

Fearmongering buzzword alert!

CUT - ding!

PROTECTIONS - ding!

THREATENED - ding!

NEED - ding!

OLD GROWTH - ding!

BATTLES - ding!

LOGGING - ding!

The Associated Press - ding!

A ******* ‘environmental writer’??? Ridiculous. What are the odds he’s a member of Greenpeace and/or the Sierra Club?


6 posted on 04/02/2009 8:01:08 AM PDT by relictele
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To: meandog
That is such a cute little bird!

Nothing implied there. :)

7 posted on 04/02/2009 8:03:01 AM PDT by Texas_shutterbug
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To: meandog
"'We are not going to have anything to do with that kind of political meddling,'"

HA!, unless it's for your benefit, then all's fair. I wonder what his stance was for the political meddling of the polar bear fiasco, I bet he was all for it then.

8 posted on 04/02/2009 8:10:45 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: meandog
Here's the nugget of truth buried in the AP story:

The Bush administration recovery plan put the blame on the barred owl, an aggressive East Coast cousin that has driven spotted owls from their territory,

And even that's not quite true. I posted on a similar thread last night but it bears repeating: The barred owl is moving into the turf of the spotted owl and it is hybridizing with it. Ornithologists call this hybrid the sparred owl. No joke.

Of course, Obama wants to put the blame on the logging industry, but the fact remains that there will be NO SHORTAGE of owls in the forest of the Pacific Northwest. Yes, there may be fewer pure spotted owls, but there are growing numbers of barred owls and sparred owls.

Once again, the AP (and Obama) play fast and loose with the facts on the ground.

9 posted on 04/02/2009 8:11:32 AM PDT by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: meandog

Earthjustice? Great; just what we need, a bunch of lawyers giving legal protection to “Earth”.


10 posted on 04/02/2009 8:13:56 AM PDT by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: meandog

The enirowackos demand that the state enforce their cherished policies - and if the state doesn’t meekly obey it’s called ‘meddling’. They demand their share of of the public’s money, and should the public question the expenditure it’s called an injustice.


11 posted on 04/02/2009 8:46:47 AM PDT by eclecticEel (I already have a Messiah, I don't need another one.)
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