Logging delay gives reprieve to endangered owls

An agreement to delay logging in an old-growth stand of British Columbia forest has given a one-year reprieve to one of Canada's most endangered species.

Governments now have to come up with a permanent way to protect the vanishing spotted owl and other endangered species in the province, said Kegan PepperSmith of Ecojustice, which has been pushing the federal government on the issue.

“We need to reimagine an approach that protects (species) and their habitat with legally enforceable measures.”

Just a tiny handful of spotted owls remains. Estimates suggest there are three left in the wild, with one breeding pair in the forests around Spuzzum in south-central B.C.

On Thursday, B.C., the federal government and the

Spuzzum First Nation announced a deal to hold off logging that watershed for a year while the governments continue working on a recovery plan for the owls.

It's part of a larger deal the two governments are developing to help the province preserve biodiversity.

“These first pilot projects will strengthen habitat protection for the threatened species which depend on it, such as the spotted owl, and help build a systemic approach to protection of biodiversity,” B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman said in a release.

Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the so-called Nature Plan will help the two jurisdictions co-operate on preserving species before their situation becomes as desperate as the spotted owl's.

“Often the federal government gets drawn into these conversations because the decline in the species has become so dramatic it's under threat of extinction,” he said. “Those are always tough conversations.”