House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement after the Interior Department released the final recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl:

“This plan will cost jobs and deliver another blow to the economies of rural communities throughout the Pacific Northwest, while doing little to actually help increase Northern Spotted Owl populations. A plan to save the Northern Spotted Owl that doesn’t seriously address its predator, the Barred Owl, is flawed and completely misses the mark. Instead of basing decisions on sound science, this Administration is moving forward with a plan that will impose drastic new restrictions on private forestland and Northwest federal lands. This will have significant impacts on timber harvest levels and the jobs that industry supports.”

In March, Chairman Hastings and Reps. Greg Walden, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Tom McClintock and Wally Herger sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar expressing concerns raised by other federal agencies, private land owners and scientific peer review organizations about the lack of transparency and scientific justification of the draft plan.

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