SALEM, OR – Changes to the half-century-old Endangered Species Act are threatening many threatened species in Oregon, including the iconic spotted owl.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reinterpreted the word “take” under the act to cover only intentional attempts to harm or kill individual animals.
Jim Murphy, associate vice president of legal advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation, said the Endangered Species Act has been successful because it protects species like the spotted owl from habitat loss, which he argued causes far more harm than direct killing.
“Even if the cutting down of the old-growth forest doesn’t directly kill any owls, it takes away the habitat so they’re not able to breed successfully. Their food source is gone, and they die out that way,” Murphy explained…