A fast-track congressional effort to strike down a Biden-era plan to save the northern spotted owl is running into unlikely opposition: loggers.
At issue is a plan from the Fish and Wildlife Service that seeks to protect the threatened northern spotted owl by killing a competitor, the barred owl.
Some loggers are opposed to the Senate’s efforts to kill the Biden plan using the Congressional Review Act, arguing it could jeopardize new requirements from the Trump administration to increase timber production.
Logging advocates say the barred owl plan is legally tied to existing resource management plans for the region, a broader plan for how public lands can be productively used. They argue that undoing the status quo could reopen extensive Endangered Species Act consultations.
