‘The most endangered bird in Canada’: Fight to save B.C.’s spotted owl heads to court

The fight to protect the habitat of some of the last spotted owls in the world is now before a federal court.

Lawyers for the environmental charity EcoJustice are challenging the federal government’s delay in issuing an emergency order to stop logging in a 25-square-kilometre patch of the Spuzzum Creek Watershed in British Columbia’s Fraser Canyon.

“It’s actually the most endangered bird in Canada, one of the most endangered species overall,” James Hobart, Chief of the Spuzzum First Nation, told Global News.

There is just one spotted owl left in the wild, two additional owls they released this year and then some in a breeding centre, he said.

Hobart said overlogging of the owls’ habitat is the primary cause of their decline.

0:41 Emergency order to protect northern spotted owl in B.C.

Last week, the federal government reversed course on issuing an emergency order to protect the owl.

The decision was outlined in a letter issued by the Canadian Wildlife Service, a branch of the Department of Environment.

The letter said the federal government will not bring in an emergency order to prevent logging in two watersheds within Spuzzum Nation territory in B.C.’s lower Fraser River canyon.

Hobart said the spotted owl is special to the Spuzzum First Nation because the birds are messengers for the health of the old-growth forest.

“We’re down to one,” he said. “What does that say about what we’re doing to its own habitat?”

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault visited the Spuzzum First Nation in February and had previously said that logging posed “an imminent threat” to the survival of the species.

He said in a letter he was recommending an emergency order to cabinet to protect the spotted owl but Hobart said there has been little engagement since other than a second letter from cabinet recommending a “collaborative approach.”

“We’ve been in the fight and we keep thinking that we have other people listening, like the federal government,” Hobart added.

“And for them to turn their backs on us, I think, and to believe that B.C. for some reason finally has got it, I will tell them that they’ve not.”

0:28 Two northern spotted owls released into Fraser Canyon

Torrance Coste, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee, told Global News the situation is an emergency.

“We are at the brink of losing a species here in Canada,” he said.

“All through spring and summer 2023, our team documented ongoing work with logging in spotted owl habitat, pushing the species closer to the brink of extinction. And we’re hoping this week to have that recognized as unlawful and in violation.”

Coste said he hopes a court ruling will show that the federal government has a responsibility when considering something as serious as an emergency order, and that taking the better part of a year to decide whether to recommend one or not is inappropriate.

He also called out the provincial government, as logging falls under provincial jurisdiction.

“The fact that we even went to the federal government to request this emergency order in the first place speaks to the lack of responsibility and the lack of accountability by the B.C. government, that they’re failing to step up and to stand up to the logging industry and protect themselves,” Coste added.

Nathan Cullen, the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship told Global News the provincial government has made a few decisions around the spotted owl.

“One is (we’ve) created a whole breeding program, the first of its kind in the world … as well as setting aside 280,000 hectares of old-growth habitat,” he said.

Global News reached out to Environment Canada but did not get a response as to why it took Guilbeault so long to respond.

The federal agency did tell Global News that logging has been deferred in that area until 2025.

The hearing is expected to wrap up Thursday, but lawyers say the final decision could take months.