Oregon timber groups file suit over spotted owl recovery plan

Two Portland-based timber industry groups have filed suit alleging that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service improperly used outside advisors to help revise a recovery plan for the northern spotted owl. The Carpenters Industrial Council and the American Forest Resource Council say the wildlife service's use of advisory committees violated federal law. Meetings were conducted privately with no written notes or other records that can reviewed by the public, said Tom Partin, the resource council president. Partin said industry representatives worry the federal government's recovery plan for the spotted owl for the first time will include regulation or restriction of private timber land. For that reason, industry groups question the role of experts and advisors who are not federal employees, Partin said. "We're very fearful of what's going on with these groups," he said. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges an owl habitat "modeling team" and a modeling advisory group were established without announcement, charter or description of their methods or purpose...more