For decades, one bird on the Endangered Species List has been blamed for single-handedly impeding logging and forest thinning operations across New Mexico.
But, that’s expected to shift with a newly changed legal definition from the Trump Administration – and some Republicans are looking to capitalize.
The bird at the center of it all? The Mexican spotted owl.
These heavily camouflaged owls flecked with white and brown, dark chocolate plumage, banded tail, and deep, dark eyes have been listed as “threatened” on the Endangered Species List since 1993.
Late last week, habitat protections afforded to threatened and endangered species by legal precedent were stripped away by the Trump Administration.
This is possible because a new rule from the Interior Department altered the definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act to allow for logging, mining, and other activities where listed animals live.
Since the law was signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, the federal government has long interpreted “harm” as acts that kill or injure wildlife, in addition to habitat degradation and modification that could stop an animal from breeding, feeding, or sheltering.
In the 1990s, private landowners challenged the definition, arguing that “harm” can only be directly physical – like killing, injuring, trapping, and torturing wildlife.
They lost in a precedent-setting 6-3 Supreme Court decision, with justices upholding that it is reasonable to interpret that “harm” also includes the degradation of habitat.
Now, under the newly revised definition of “harm,” the Trump administration will turn this long-held legal understanding on its head to only mean direct, physical damage.
“This has been an industry's dream for decades, and it kneecaps the Endangered Species Act,” said Defenders of Wildlife conservationist Bryan Bird in reaction to the news.
Bird has worked in the Southwest since 1996, and said, even back then, the Mexican spotted owl was in the midst of a hotly contested debate between industry and environmentalists.
“It’s been a lightning rod and a symbol of how we manage our federal public forests in New Mexico,” Bird said. “But, I would argue that it is blown way out of proportion, and it's been used sort of as a rhetorical tool for different sides to make their case.”
Back in 2019, in response to a lawsuit filed by Wildlife Guardians, a judge issued a broad order that stopped all prescribed burning and thinning projects in New Mexico’s National Forests to prevent the owl’s habitat destruction.
That order was then narrowed to allow certain thinning operations at the request of National Forest Service officials.
The Mexican spotted owl has significant populations widely scattered across New Mexico – but particularly in the Lincoln National Forest nestled in the Sacramento Mountains, where Republican State Rep. Harlan Vincent’s district lies.
“If we go into a thinning area and there's a spotted owl in there, then we immediately have to vacate the premises, and you know millions of acres went untreated,” Vincent told KUNM. “Then the logging industry couldn't stay viable and here we are.”
The Ruidoso area has been the epicenter of large wildfires and subsequent flash flooding over the past decade, including the 2022 McBride and 2024 South Fork and Salt fires.
Vincent has been consistently critical of the owl, saying that it has been “weaponized” by environmentalists to stop logging and thinning projects in his district, creating the perfect conditions for wildfires to spark in Lincoln County.
However, Vincent is excited for a future with less habitat protections, saying that it could spur major logging in National Forests reminiscent of the post-World War II housing boom and curb fire risk.
“Well, my grand plan is to open a sawmill, THE sawmill in Mescalero,” Vincent said. “My plan is to have a robust logging system going, not only in the Lincoln [National Forest], but in the Sacramento Mountains.”
Defenders of Wildlife conservationist Bryan Bird is skeptical of Vincent’s claims and said there is plenty of thinning and burning happening across national forests in New Mexico.
“That is just a red herring that's being thrown around by industry and those that are doing the bidding of the logging industry,” Bird added.
Vincent, for his part, told KUNM he won’t “tolerate” any protests by conservation groups.
“I don't believe they know what they're doing,” Vincent said. “We have to thin our forest for it to be healthy.”
Several environmental organizations – including Defenders of Wildlife – have sworn to fight the Trump administration’s definition change, and have already filed legal challenges in court.
According to the National Park Service, the Mexican spotted owl’s population is predicted to decline anywhere from 25–50% in the future.
Specifically, in New Mexico, the population had already declined 9% throughout the 1990s.
