The Bush administration overruled the opinions of its own government scientists in deciding that the marbled murrelet in California, Oregon, and Washington was not genetically or ecologically distinct from bird populations in Canada and Alaska. The 2004 decision, the result of a review requested by a trade group, the American Forest Resource Council, was warmly received by the timber industry.

The marbled murrelet population of California, Oregon and Washington was listed as threatened under the ESA in 1992. While the dove-sized sea birds were more numerous in Canada and Alaska, they were disappearing rapidly from the three northwestern states as their coastal forest habitat came under pressure from human development and logging. The San Francisco Chronicle explains that the listing of the murrelet as endangered was especially unpopular with Pacific Lumber Co., as the protection of the bird hampered the company's efforts to log northern California old-growth redwood forests.¹ 

The marbled murrelet population in the three northwestern states ranges between 17,000 and 27,000. In contrast, there exist between 55,000 and 78,000 murrelets in British Columbia and an estimated 860,000 in Alaska.² Even with its ESA protection, however, the marbled murrelet populations continued to decline and fragment in the northwest over the last ten years. The Audubon Society estimates a decline of between 4 and 7 percent per year.

In a review of the bird's status, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's western office argued that the murrelet of the Pacific Northwest was ecologically distinct from its northern cousins. The conclusions of the agency's regional office echoed those of the California Department of Fish and Game, which held that the three-state population should be treated as a Distinct Population Segment (DPS).³  Preservation of distinct populations of endangered species is an important part of biodiversity conservation strategy.

The federal Fish and Wildlife Service ignored the recommendations of both groups of regional scientists, and instead found that the Pacific Northwest murrelets did not qualify as a distinct population segment.⁴ The FWS argued that marbled murrelet populations were contiguous across the Canadian border and hence the three-state population did not satisfy the requirement of "discreteness" necessary for DPS status. The Bush administration announced plans to begin the process of delisting the bird from the ESA in October 2005.⁵ Scientists and environmental advocates argue that delisting goes against the best available scientific information about a vulnerable bird population. As Kristen Boyles of Earthjustice explained, by grouping together all populations the Interior Department is "ignoring biology and playing games with the legal standard to say this is no longer a population segment we can list."⁶

An official proposal to delist the species has not yet appeared. However, a new rule has been presented for public comment that would reduce by nearly 95% the acreage of marbled murrelet critical habitat protected under the ESA.⁷ The announcement says that the new rule is the result of a "settlement" reached with the American Forest Resource Council and the Western Council of Industrial Workers.  A final decision will be made before August 30, 2007.