Agency plan for murrelet habitat ruffles conservationists' feathers.

Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard

FLORENCE - The threatened marbled murrelet will lose 95 percent of its federally protected habitat in the Pacific Northwest if a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal announced Tuesday is finalized - a move conservationists say will push the bird to the brink of extinction.

The move would strip 3.3 million acres of "critical habitat" from what's now in place, a designation that requires that the agency be consulted before timber is sold or roads are built in areas that could impact the seabirds. That leaves 221,000 acres of land that remains critical habitat in the Northwest, 82,000 acres in Oregon.

As a result, the small, puffin-type bird will have to rely on state and private landowners for protection, largely under the Northwest Forest Plan.

"We're facing an extirpation of the species in the state of Oregon," said Susan Ash, conservation director of the Portland Audubon Society, which lobbied to see the bird added to the Endangered Species List in 1992. "State and private landowners don't have a history of protecting the marbled murrelet. Our own Department of Forestry calls implementing protections for marbled murrelet `problematic.' '

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Joan Jewitt said the proposed change would make little difference for the murrelet, whose status on the threatened species list is under review.

The move came about after a timber industry lawsuit in 2002 challenging the 3.5 million acres the agency had designated as habitat. Fish and Wildlife settled the lawsuit, agreeing to review its decision.

"The areas we're proposing to remove are all areas covered by management plans that we feel provide adequate protection - in fact as good or better protection," Jewitt said. "We want to basically recognize and reward the good efforts going on to protect murrelets in their habitat."

The problem with that logic, said Doug Heiken, western Oregon field representative for the Oregon Natural Resources Council, is what he called attempts by the Bush administration to undermine the Northwest Forest Plan - by allowing logging in managed areas such as the Biscuit Forest, for example.

"If the left hand relies on the Northwest Forest Plan, the right hand is eagerly trying to dismantle it," Heiken said. "Protections of the plan aren't voluntary, but they aren't a Congressional mandate and can be undone very easily."

By removing areas of critical habitat that the birds don't currently occupy, there's no room for the murrelet to rebound, added Kristen Boyles, an attorney for Earth Justice.

"Where they are now is almost extinct," Boyles said.

American Forest Resource Council spokesman Chris West said the bigger issue is why the species is listed at all, as it was based on the assumption that the U.S.-Canadian border was a line between two distinct murrelet populations.

"There are hundreds of thousands of birds all the way around the Pacific to the Russian shore," he said. "It doesn't make sense to have the bird listed. That's still the underlying issue."

The agency will gather public comment through November 13 on the proposal. A final decision is expected about a year from now.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

MARBLED MURRELET HABITAT

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed rolling back 3.3 million acres of "critical habitat" for the marbled murrelet. Public comment will be accepted until November.

In writing: Contact Ken Berg, field supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Western Washington Fish and Wildlife Office, 510 Desmond Drive, Suite 101, Lacey, WA 98503-1273.

Via fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]