A local environmental protection group is again looking to focus attention on logging in owl habitat in the Chilliwack River Valley (CRV).

Glen Thompson of the Friends of the CRV said his group has organized a visit next Tuesday to the Owl Forest Wildlife Habitat Area (WHA), an area set aside by the provincial government for re-introduction of spotted owl.

The land in question is an oldgrowth stand of trees that runs from Post Creek to Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park.

A management plan for the owls allows logging in the habitat in the Chilliwack Forest District.

Exemptions to logging restrictions in the Owl Forest WHA were given to companies to offset timber losses in other areas set aside for spotted owl protection.

Tamihi Logging received five of seven exemptions in the CRV and critics say the company have been taking the biggest trees in a sensitive area, all for a few weeks of work.

"At a public meeting held last fall Tamihi Logging estimated logging the Owl Forest will employ a crew for two to three weeks," Thompson said in an email.

"When Friends of CRV uncovered the exemptions last fall major environmental groups in Vancouver were shocked. The Wilderness Committee has stated saving the Owl Forest will be a major campaign in 2012."

In June, Derrick Kramer who has a cabin in Post Creek, a recreational subdivision adjacent to the provincial park, said the clearcuts were ruining the area.

"My main concern is the spotted owl," Kramer said at the time. "But secondly, it's the last thing people see driving to the provincial park. It's just disgusting."

In the summer, the Friends of the CRV got the Western Canada Wilderness Committee involved, and they hosted a Canada Day campout to protest the logging of the spotted owl habitat.

Thompson has called on former Environment Minister and Chilliwack-Hope MLA Barry Penner to answer for the exemptions given to logging companies in the WHA.

Penner told Thompson he was unable to meet with him since he is stepping down in the new year.