Court Dismisses Logging Group’s Lawsuit Against Interior Department Over Northern Spotted Owl Habitat Reduction Delay

A federal appeals court in the District of Columbia Circuit has dismissed a lawsuit by a logging group against the Interior Department over the delay of a Trump-era habitat reduction for a vulnerable owl. The decision, which was unanimously agreed upon by the court, upholds a lower court decision that stated that a timber trade group and West Coast counties no longer had grounds to sue the Department of Interior Department for delaying the decision to remove millions of acres of critical habitat for the threatened northern spotted owl. Senior Judge Douglas Ginsburg, a Reagan appointee, stated that both the First and Second Delay Rules had expired and had no continuing effect.