Red Tree Vole Saves Old Growth
Feb 06, 2006
Protection regained for red tree vole, as several egregious old-growth forest sales in Oregon are stopped by court order
With this year came good news for the red tree vole, a small rodent that lives in the treetops of old-growth forests and, incidentally, good news also for the northern spotted owl that dines on them.
In November, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Oregon sided with conservationists to rule that the Bureau of Land Management illegally reduced protection for the red tree vole under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan’s Survey and Manage program. That program requires the Forest Service and BLM to survey public lands for about 300 species considered at risk but unprotected under the Endangered Species Act.
According to the court, the decision to downgrade the red tree vole to a classification where it was no longer necessary to look for their nests before logging, or to protect those nests, was made without public involvement, violating federal laws including the National Environmental Policy Act. Based on the finding, the judge also stopped two old growth timber sales in the western Cascades of Oregon, Cow Catcher and Cottonsnake, in the Glendale BLM Resource District outside Grants Pass, Oregon.
