By JEFF BARNARD AP Environmental Writer
Posted: 04/08/2013 03:12:04 PM PDT
Updated: 04/08/2013 06:27:26 PM PDT
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday it will
take a closer look at the black-backed woodpecker. A decision is due in a year
but could take longer due to budget cuts.
Fish and Wildlife is considering two populations of the
woodpecker—one inhabiting the Sierras of California and eastern Cascade Range
of Oregon, and another in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. Another Northern Rockies population is not under consideration.
The agency said conservation groups that petitioned to
protect the birds presented substantial scientific information that they were
suffering a loss of habitat because of fire suppression, salvage logging that
removes fire-killed trees, and thinning to reduce the intensity of wildfires.
The decision is giving conservation groups hope the bird
can force changes in national wildfire policy the same way the northern spotted
owl overhauled the idea of logging old-growth forests.
Chad Hanson, staff ecologist of the John Muir Project of
the Earth Island Institute, said the woodpecker has already figured in lawsuits
to stop salvage logging.
"We hope as a result of this, the Forest Service will
in fact not only pay more attention to species like this, but do a proactive
job of educating people that when fire happens, it is not a bad thing, wildlife
rely upon it," Hanson said. "These notions of catastrophic wildfire
are really just politics and ignorance, and reflect outdated thinking."
Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers said the agency's
wildfire policy was not changing because the bird was not yet listed as a
threatened or endangered species. He added that the agency already took
"science-based actions to protect its habitat."
The agency has also said budget cuts this year will force
it to let more fires burn—a prospect Hanson said would benefit the woodpecker
and a broad range of species.
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