February, 12 2012

The marbled murrelet spends most of its life feeding in the ocean, but it's the rarer times when the sea bird ventures inland to roost that people take notice.

The marbled murrelet's taste for old-growth forests is central to lawsuits by conservationists and the timber industry.

The timber industry maintains the federal government is overprotective of the marbled murrelet by designating areas not even used by the bird as "critical habitat."

The industry has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is overstepping its authority and tying up timber sales by requiring unneeded and time-consuming planning to protect marbled murrelets.

JULIE K. BYRD-JENKINS / News-Review graphic

Meanwhile, environmentalists say logging in Oregon's state forests is harming the bird and are calling for more stringent conservation policies.

Three conservation groups are threatening to sue the Oregon Department of Forestry over logging practices in the Elliott, Tillamook and Clatsop state forests.

Although less notorious than the northern spotted owl, the marbled murrelet depends on similar habitat, causes the same conflicts and has been listed as a threatened species for nearly as long.

The robin-sized bird with a short neck and black or brown feathers mixed with white has received protection on the West Coast under the Endangered Species Act since 1992, two years after the spotted owl's listing.

Logging in mature coastal forests and the resulting loss of suitable nesting sites have been cited as the primary causes of the bird's decline.

Marbled murrelets don't build nests, but they seek out thick branches within 50 miles of the seashore on which to lay a single egg.

Besides providing branches large enough to support an egg, older conifer trees protect marbled murrelets against predators, such as jays and crows.

In October, Fish and Wildlife slightly reduced the amount of land in Southern Oregon and Northern California designated as critical for the bird's recovery. The ruling left 3.7 million acres, or 95 percent of what had been designated, as critical habitat. The timber industry was dissatisfied and, led by the Portland-based timber industry group American Forest Resource Council, sued in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Douglas County and the Carpenters Industrial Council joined the lawsuit as co-plaintiffs.

County Commissioner Doug Robertson said the critical habitat designation will affect county-owned and private timberlands. Fish and Wildlife should provide more proof the marbled murrelet needs so much room, he said.

"How far can it go before someone says, ‘Wait a minute. You're setting aside all this timber based on what?' " he asked. "Clearly, it's tiresome. Here we are in another piece of litigation. If no one is willing to stand up to these agencies, then where does it stop? We thought it was important to step in."

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Janet Lebson said the federal agency set aside areas unoccupied by marbled murrelets to create buffers to protect eggs from predators and to heal habitat broken up by logging.

"It will take a long time to reconnect those areas that have been fragmented over time," she said. "There are some unoccupied areas that are essential to the conservation status because they are essential for the bird to breed."

But timber industry advocates say the federal agency could have removed far more forest from its critical habitat designation.

American Forest Resource Council spokeswoman Ann Forest Burns said the group believes U.S. Fish and Wildlife has no authority to designate areas that aren't used now by marbled murrelets.

The agency should designate only areas where marbled murrelets currently nest, instead of setting aside land "that maybe someday the marbled murrelet might use," she said.

"We don't consider it critical habitat," Forest Burns said.

"Forest managers will have to go to U.S. Fish and Wildlife every time they do a project," she said. "It just will slow everything down more than it's already slowed down."

Fish and Wildlife biologist Bridgette Tuerler said critical habitat was designated after careful surveys and while keeping in mind that the birds need protected space around their nests.

"Not all of it is nesting structure, but it's still important to protect," she said.

Tuerler said field surveys found marbled murrelets prefer nesting in dense forests. It makes sense considering that jays flock to clearings to eat berries. The jays then forage for other nearby snacks, including marbled murrelet eggs.

Since marbled murrelets have a low rate of reproduction, predation can devastate the population, she said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife estimated in 2010 there were about 17,000 marbled murrelets in Oregon, California and Washington. A zone that includes much of coastal Oregon was estimated to have a population of about 7,200 birds.

The Oregon population has declined by 6 percent in the past decade, Tuerler said. This is what makes the critical habitat designation so important, she said.

"We want to halt the population decline."

The environmental groups Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Audubon Society of Portland also are concerned about the decline. They announced recently their plans to sue the state.

The conservation director for Cascadia Wildlands, Francis Eatherington, said the state isn't setting aside enough land in state forests to protect the marbled murrelet.

By logging too close to marbled murrelet habitat, the state is making it easier for crows and other predators to reach the sea birds' nests, she said.

The conservation groups criticize the forestry department's plans to increase logging on the 93,000-acre Elliott State Forest near Reedsport.

"Over half the Elliott hasn't been logged before, so it's very rare habitat," Eatherington said.

An Oregon Department of Forestry spokesman declined to comment on the threatened lawsuit, but the department has responded to the criticisms before.

The department issued a report in April 2011 in response to concerns by the Audubon Society of Portland. The agency said it avoids harming marbled murrelets by taking careful measures, including conducting more than 1,500 surveys for the bird each year.

About 20,000 acres in state forests have been set aside as marbled murrelet management areas, the report stated.

When a timber sale is planned near one of those areas, logging is seasonally restricted to not disturb nesting marbled murrelets, according to the department. Since 1996, four timber sales totaling 654 acres have occurred in or near nesting habitat.

In October, the state announced plans to increase logging on the Elliott by 60 percent. Forestry officials estimated the new management plan will increase annual timber harvests from 25 million board feet to 40 million. Revenue from timber sales from the Elliott and other state forests supports public schools.

Eatherington said the state doesn't have to lose revenue to protect the marbled murrelet. To earn what it would gain from clear-cutting, the state could sell carbon credits or thin trees, she said.

"There is plenty of logging that can be done on the Elliott that doesn't harm the marbled murrelet. It would provide a lot of logs, a lot of jobs," she said. "We certainly care about local jobs, and we hope that the Oregon Department of Forestry can see a way to continue with thinning to continue to provide those jobs."