Obama Administration Reinstates Oregon Old Growth Forest Protection

WASHINGTON, DC, July 16, 2009 (ENS) - Because the Bush administration failed to follow established administrative procedure before leaving office, its plan to intensify logging in western Oregon, known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, is legally indefensible and must be withdrawn, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said today.

In addition, Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Thomas Strickland said that the federal government will ask the District Court to vacate the Fish and Wildlife Service's 2008 revision of the critical habitat for the spotted owl, on which the Western Oregon Plan Revisions was in part based, because Interior's Inspector General determined that the decisionmaking process for the owl's recovery plan was potentially jeopardized by improper political influence.