An internal memo from the US Fish and Wildlife Service provides an explicit roadmap for old-growth logging
| Contact: Danielle Moser, Oregon Wild |
Portland, Ore., – Last week, the New York Times reported on an internal Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) memo that seeks to radically redefine the Endangered Species Act away from the purpose of protecting and recovering imperiled wildlife. Under this reinterpretation, the Trump administration is arguing that the “take”–killing–of endangered species is permitted as long as the killing is not the purpose of the action.
In Oregon, this interpretation would have consequences for numerous imperiled species, including salmon runs, cutthroat trout, Oregon spotted frog, marbled murrelet, snowy plover, northern spotted owl, and coastal marten. It would also have far-reaching impacts on land management plans that encompass millions of acres of public land. The Trump administration is currently in the process of revising the Northwest Forest Plan and the Western Oregon Bureau of Land Management Plan, and will use this new interpretation to dismantle old-growth and wildlife protections to maximize logging.
“The Trump administration is trying to make killing endangered species legal,” said Danielle Moser, Wildlife Program Manager for Oregon Wild. “Dam the last salmon run, cut down the last owl roost, build a data center over a wetland filled with endangered turtles. Rather than a policy of trying to avoid extinction, this policy embraces it.”
The USFWS memo is based on changes the Trump administration has pursued to alter the definition of “harm” to exclude the modification or destruction of endangered species habitat. Oregon Wild and several other conservation organizations are already litigating this rule change.
However, the new USFWS memo goes even further and envisions a policy that dramatically deviates from established precedent to avoid or mitigate foreseeable but unintentional killing of protected species. The memo specifically states that the logging of a tree occupied by a protected species that ultimately kills the animal would be permitted. “Felling a tree is not a take of the bats roosting in it unless the tree is felled for the purpose of killing or capturing them,” writes USFWS Director Brian Nesvik.
“In the midst of the twin crises of extinction and climate change, our federal government should be following the best available science and implementing long-term solutions to recover species and the habitats on which they depend,” continued Moser. “Instead, the Trump administration is choosing to line the pockets of their friends in the logging, mining, and extractive industries.”
Photo by USFS
