U.S. Agency Wants Pygmy Owl Taken Off Endangered Species List.

Byline: Tony Davis

Dec. 16--The U.S. agency that put the pygmy owl on the endangered species list now wants it taken off, which would make it easier to develop thousands of acres of prime Northwest Side land.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service filed papers last week asking a federal judge to drop the listing of the tiny cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, whose protection transformed the politics of growth in Pima County.

Echoing arguments made by home builders' groups, the Wildlife Service said a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in August leaves a lower District Court judge no choice but to take the owl off the list.

Federal Judge Susan Bolton of Phoenix will decide. No hearing date has been set.

U.S. law requires her to drop the listing, the service says, because the 9th Circuit ruling found the original 1997 decision to list the owl arbitrary and capricious. That ruling …