For immediate release — November 14, 2008

Emergency meeting sought with BC ministers Pat Bell and Barry Penner over BC government sanctioned logging at rare Spotted Owl site

Vancouver, BC – An emergency meeting has been requested with the BC government over the fate of the critically endangered spotted owl. The owl has suffered a 99% decline in historic numbers, with only 6 spotted owls now remaining in the wild in BC. At the current rate of decline the owl will be extinct in BC in 2009 or 2010. The meeting has been requested with BC Government Ministers Pat Bell and Barry Penner because of their current and historic involvement with the spotted owl file. The discussion will focus on immediate intervention to stop logging at spotted owl sites, and the need to ban all old growth logging within the range of the spotted owl in BC.

The emergency meeting request was inspired by the Wilderness Committees recent discovery of road-building and planned clearcutting within the Fire Mountain spotted owl protected area. The current status of the owl at Fire Mountain, 67 km southeast of Pemberton, is unknown but its home is officially listed as active and warranting protection.

Despite the protected status of the Fire Mountain spotted owl site, the BC government continues to encourage and advocate logging here. Road-building to access the planned clearcuts was completed in late October 2008 and the three planned clearcuts could be felled at any moment.

The precedent for intervention to stop logging was set by a 2006 promise made by MLA Pat Bell of the BC government to then Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose. The BC government intervened in a BC Supreme Court case launched by the Wilderness Committee and others by promising the federal government that action would be taken to protect spotted owl sites. Based on this promise, environmentalists dropped the court case. The BC government then narrowly defined spotted owl sites deserving protection only as those found in 2005, despite a complete lack of scientific support for such limited protection.

Andy Miller, Staff Scientist at the Wilderness Committee and former member of the BC Government Spotted Owl Recovery Team is angry at the BC governments broken promises and disregard for the federal Species At Risk Act (SARA). "The BC government made a promise in court to protect spotted owl habitat and they have utterly failed to do so. Now there are only 6 owls left. Recovery was defined by the BC government as 250 owls, but at the current rate of logging there will not be enough sites to accommodate this recovery goal. The BC government seems intent on making the spotted owl go away by forcing its extinction." said Miller.

The Wilderness Committee erected a roadside research camp at Fire Mountain last month to search for the Fire Mountain owl and protest BC government sanctioned logging of its home. "We are optimistic that Ministers Bell and Penner will honour our request to meet and/or that Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice will intervene to stop the BC Governments reckless disregard for this most endangered of Canadian wildlife", said Miller.

For more information call Andy Miller @ 604-992-3099 or 604-683-8220 or Joe Foy @ 604-880-2580.