Oregon Public Broadcasting

A threatened Northwest seabird will have a little less protected land to fly around in, if changes proposed Wednesday go through.

The marbled murrelet would lose about a quarter of a million acres of land. That's about 6.5 percent of the so-called  “Critical Habitat” designated under the Endangered Species Act. Rob Manning reports.

You might think of the marbled murrelet as the northern spotted owl’s less famous cousin who likes to hang out at the beach.

Like the iconic owl, the murrelet frequents old-growth forests, and it can thwart logging plans by its very presence.

But unlike the owl, federal scientists say that murrelets are less deserving of protection the farther they get from their preferred habitat -- the beach.

Joan Jewett with U.S. Fish and Wildlife says that’s why the new proposal suggests dropping protections for a 60,000-acre area in Oregon.

Joan Jewett: "It’s in Lane and Douglas counties, in Oregon, between Eugene and Roseburg, and that’s an area that’s further than 35 miles in from the Pacific Ocean. The recovery plan for the murrelet, recommended our conservation efforts for the murrelet within 35 miles of the ocean. That’s the area that they primarily use."

Three times as much land  may lose protection along the Oregon/California border.  But scientists tend to agree those lands are simply too hot and dry for threatened seabird.

However, Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity says some scientists see that land in Lane and Douglas counties differently.

He says surveys over the years found murrelets there, unlike on the California border. Greenwald suspects that U.S. Fish and Wildlife is basing its decision on what the Bureau of Land Management wants, not on science.

Noah Greenwald: “There have not been systematic surveys in those areas. There are in fact, murrelets in those areas. It appears to be just a political move to support their effort to remove BLM lands from the Northwest Forest Plan, and log more old-growth forests.” 

Fish and Wildlife officials had initially planned to release the critical habitat revision last year, but delayed it, so that they could consult the Bureau of Land Management.

Wildlife officials insist that the current proposal looks very much like it did before the meetings with the BLM.

Public comment will be accepted on the proposal until late September.

A final critical habitat map is expected by the end of the year.