Juvenile spotted owl. Photo by Rayma Anne, Flickr.

With the spotted owl population in the Pacific Northwest continuing to decline, a long awaited decision on the status of the 2008 spotted owl recovery plan was welcomed last week by those of us who work on northwest forest issues. Read more

Marbled Murrelet. Courtesy USFWS.

A tiny Northwestern seabird got some great news on Jan 20. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the marbled murrelet is still in need of federal protection and declined petitions to remove the bird from the list of threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service cited declining populations in Oregon, Washington, and California as proof that the marbled murrelet was not ready to be removed from the protective measures that have been in place since the early 1990s. Read more

Marbled murrelet. Courtesy USFWS.

Just six months into Obama’s presidency, we’re already beginning to see just how much we can get done with an administration that values strong scientific evidence. Last week, after years of foot-dragging by the Bush Administration, the White House released a landmark multi-agency government report on the effects of climate change on the U.S. Just a day later, a scientific report from the U.S. Read more