Judge - Norton, Interior Must Immediately Designate Owl Habitat

TUCSON, Ariz. — A federal judge has ordered Interior Secretary Gale Norton to comply immediately with an earlier order to redesignate critical habitat for the threatened Mexican spotted owl.

U.S. District Judge David Bury dismissed Interior Department arguments that it should not be required to make such a designation, required under the Endangered Species Act, until Congress appropriates enough money.

In his order, Bury cited an appellate court ruling that found "the United States may not evade the law simply by failing to appropriate enough money to comply with it."

EDIT

Bury castigated the Interior Department for failing to designate critical habitat for the owl in Arizona and New Mexico since it was listed as a threatened species a decade ago. Critical habitat provides safeguards for the species and places restrictions on human activity that could harm it. The department "has spent the past 10 years thwarting the stated purpose of the (Endangered Species Act) by refusing to designate critical habitat," Bury wrote."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-10-15/s_9429.asp

Get the people out and let the Owls move in. Good plan?

Can she be fined? Even if she were, does anyone really believe that she would actually have to pay up? Seems to me she has the advantage of not having to be accountable.

from the same article:

<snip>
After a 1993 lawsuit, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt designated 4.6 million acres of critical owl habitat in Arizona and New Mexico in 1995 and later proposed expanding the habitat to 13.4 million acres, including southern Colorado and Utah.

The Bush administration, which had responsibility for the final rule, deleted 8.9 million of those acres, including all 11 national forests in Arizona and New Mexico, prompting the Center for Biological Diversity to sue again.
</snip>

One of those "frivolous lawsuits" Bush hates, I suppose.

s_m