Federal agency hiring outside help on spotted owl plan.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

Unprecedented public comment on a draft recovery plan for the northern spotted owl has prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to call for reinforcements.

In order to meet its April 2008 deadline for a final plan, the agency responsible for conserving and protecting the nation's flora and fauna announced Wednesday it will hire outside help.

Fish and Wildlife must process and analyze the more than 80,000 comments it has received since it invited public input in April.

The plan spells out how best to help boost the population of a species first listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990.

Besides the public comments, the plan also hasbeen scrutinized in a half-dozen scientific peer reviews, mostly critical of gaps in the plan's science.

To address the comments and reviews in time for the agency's deadline, the agency will need outside expertise, Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Joan Jewett said. The agency expects to hire a firm within the month, she said.

The outside firm will include scientists who can help not just process the comments but assist with analysis, Jewett said.

Fish and Wildlife will also convene several work groups to focus specifically on habitat management, competition from barred owls and fire.

"The service is committed to developing the best final recovery plan possible for the northern spotted owl, one that incorporates the latest science and most effective current management practices," said Ren Lohoefener, the agency's Pacific regional director, in a prepared statement.

But those familiar with the plan and the scientific peer reviews say the process has been so flawed that the agency should scrap the current recovery plan and start over.

"To now outsource to a private contractor is just a continuation of a bad pattern," said Dominick DellaSala, executive director of the National Center for Conservation Science&Policy. "The consequence is removal of protection for old growth. It's the key domino to topple the Northwest Forest Plan and protections for old growth forests."

The recovery plan is the document Fish and Wildlife uses to evaluate actions, such as logging, proposed by other government agencies that could harm struggling species.

DellaSala was on the team that developed the northern spotted owl recovery plan, and he has accused Bush administration appointees of meddling with the plan, demanding that the team emphasize threats from the barred owl over diminishing spotted owl habitat. Recovery team members also were required to include an option that would remove mapped designations of spotted owl habitat, he said.

This month more than 100 scientists signed a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne asking him to start over.

While the agency won't do that, it will bring together experts to consult as it finalizes the draft plan, Jewett said.

"We don't know who is going to be in those groups yet, but they will be scientists who have expertise in those areas," she said.

As for the potential for influence on the final plan by political appointees, "This won't be developed in a vacuum," Jewett said. "As with most of our work, there will be review at the national level."