Agency given deadline on maps of habitats spotted owls require The Arizona Republic October 10, 1994 A federal judge in Phoenix has given the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a Dec. 1 deadline to propose maps of specific wildlife habitats needed to protect the Mexican spotted owl from excessive timber cutting. U.S. District Judge Carl Muecke also gave Fish and Wildlife until May 27 to produce final maps of forest areas set aside for the owl, which last year was listed as threatened with extinction. The orders follow Muecke's ruling in July that required the Fish and Wildlife Service to produce maps of specific habitat critical to the owls' survival. Federal wildlife officials argued that they could not complete the task until Dec. 1, 1995, a delay that environmentalists said would give the timber industry more time to cut down trees in which the owls live. Environmentalists contend that the federal government has dragged its feet in protecting the owls, noting that petitions for the owls' protection were first submitted in 1989. Gov. Fife Symington, who has fought Muecke in other matters, has said recently that he believes the owls are thriving and do not need protection. Symington has thrown his political lot in with a pro-development group that filed a lawsuit last month in federal court in Albuquerque to have the owl taken off the endangered-species list. A similar request by the Coalition of Arizona and New Mexico Counties for Stable Economic Growth, based in Catron County, N.M., was rejected in April by Fish and Wildlife.
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