Spotted Owl Ruling & FSA Deadline

In his continuing capacity as Natural Resources Committee Chairman Congressman Doc Hastings has voiced major concern over a final critical habitat ruling for the Northern Spotted Owl released by the Obama Administration, which will set aside 9.5 million acres of U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management land in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California as critical to the survival of the Northern Spotted Owl.

HASTINGS: There’s been emerging more and more evidence that the demise of the spotted owl is not because of old growth, but rather because of the predator or the barred owl. We had a Natural Resources hearing in Longview, Washington last spring and that testimony came out, and yet here this administration is continually taking more forest land and essentially locking it up.

Logging in northwest national forests has been cutback ninety percent since the spotted owl was designated a threatened species in 1990, and yet the spotted owl has continued to experience a drastic decline. While the newest spotted owl recovery plan addresses the removal of some barred owls, no specifics have yet been released by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

USDA’s Farm Service Agency and Risk Management Agency have established joint acreage reporting dates for the 2013 reporting year. That means FSA dates will now match the “earliest” acreage reporting date for insurable crops, rather than having one date for all crops in a county.
The FSA would like to remind producers that the 2013 fall crops acreage reporting deadline is December 15th, and that they are strongly encouraged to contact their local FSA office prior to this date.

Back in a minute.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.