Reduction of spotted owl habitat delayed until December By Claudia Yaw, The Chronicle, Centralia Published: May 4, 2021, 1:53pm Share: FILE - In this May 8, 2003, file photo, a northern spotted owl sits on a tree branch in the Deschutes National Forest near Camp Sherman, Ore. Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to preserve protections for 3.4 million acres of northern spotted owl habitat from the US-Canadian border to northern California. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed protections for the old-growth forest in the last days of the Trump administration. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File) CENTRALIA — Protections for the northern spotted owl may hang in the balance until December, as the federal government has once again delayed the decision to remove 3.5 million acres of protected habitat from the West Coast.