USDA to Scrap Biden Draft That Saved Imperiled Owl for New Plan

The Trump administration in 2026 will re-draft an update to a plan that helped protect the threatened northern spotted owl from logging in the Pacific Northwest, the US Forest Service said Monday.

The service will revise the Biden administration’s draft of the Northwest Forest Plan Amendment, which was released last year and proposes to expand some kinds of logging in 17 national forests in northern California, Oregon, and Washington State.

The northern spotted owl, which is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, has been the center of tensions between loggers and environmentalists over logging and imperiled birds ...