Environmentalists sue Canada to save spotted owl

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Environmentalists sue Canada to save spotted owl Tue

Jan 31, 12:11 PM ET

 

 

 

VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) - In a last-ditch bid to save

western Canada's spotted owls, the emblem of North

America's environmental movement, nature lovers are

suing the federal government in court to force action.

 

 

A coalition of four environmental groups wants a judge

to order Canada to draft an emergency plan to protect

the rare birds under the untested Species At Risk Act

and step on provincial toes to impose conservation

measures.

 

The move is highly controversial in Canada, where the

10 provinces and three territories aggressively

protect their jurisdictions from federal interference.

 

Experts say the bird could become extinct in Canada by

the time Vancouver hosts the 2010 Winter Olympics.

 

In Canada's Pacific coast province of British

Columbia, research shows that just six breeding pairs

and 11 single owls are still alive. In the early

1990s, there were about 1,000 birds, or 500 breeding

pairs.

 

The owls were designated as " endangered " in both

Canada and the United States in the late 1980s, and in

Canada they are considered the species most at risk.

 

The province, which has appointed a team to work on

protection plans, argues that the owl issue is

complex, and has protested the court case.

 

But lawyer Devon Page said the four environmental

groups, Environmental Defence Canada, Forest Ethics,

the David Suzuki Foundation and the Western Canada

Wilderness Committee, took legal action after British

Columbia approved further logging in the owl's

territory late last year.

 

The federal government has until late February to

respond to information filed in a federal court this

month by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, which is

acting for the four groups.

 

Page, a staff lawyer with the fund, said the case will

likely take at least one year to wind through the

courts.

 

The spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) is a brown bird

with puffy, elaborately marked feathers and trademark

wide-eyed scowl. It has become synonymous in North

America with environmental battles.

 

The owl is viewed as an indicator species, or the

proverbial canary in a coal mine. Studies in the

United States show declines in spotted owls are

matched by declines in other fragile species such as

salamanders, frogs, some plants and other predators.

 

The effort to protect the bird is " not just about the

spotted owl, " said

 

Page. " Its well-being demonstrates the well-being of

other species. "

 

The birds are found only in the far west of North

America, from a southern range in northern California

to 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of this western

Canadian city.

 

Spotted owls are particularly vulnerable to logging of

their habitat because of their nesting and hunting

habits. The animals do not build nests, but lay their

eggs in trees hollowed out by age or decay, which

typically only happens to old trees.

 

The birds are also passive hunters, unaccustomed to

straying far for their food. " It's a sit and wait

predator, " said Page, that perches in a tree until it

sees prey such as mice.

 

When a forest is cleared and prey populations decline,

the birds starve.

 

Like other environmental causes in British Columbia,

such as hunting of grizzly bears and logging of

old-growth forests, the spotted owl is attracting

international attention.

 

Most recently, the court case was profiled in the

science journal Nature.