Obama administration proposes dropping 'critical habitat' protections for threatened marbled murrelets

[Chris Merkord]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to drop all 3.9 million acres of "critical habitat" for the marbled murrelet, a tiny, threatened seabird that nests in coastal forest in Oregon, California and Washington.

Its proposal would partially settle a federal lawsuit brought by the American Forest Resource Council, southwestern Oregon's Douglas County and the Carpenters Industrial Council, who say the service inappropriately set aside habitat for the bird in 1996.

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