PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Owls may halt plans for a new interstate in Arizona as state conservation groups are expanding their lawsuit against the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).The groups claim Interstate 11 would harm threatened and endangered species in the area. These groups originally sued the FHWA last year, saying the agency also sidestepped the environmental review process for project approval.One of the threatened species these conservation groups say is at risk by the proposed I-11 expansion into Arizona is the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl. “The impacts to threatened and endangered species’ habitat would be almost too great to comprehend,” Center for Biological Diversity Southwest Conservation advocate Russ McSpadden said.When it comes to I-11, the proposed 280-mile highway that would run from Nogales to Wickenburg, McSpadden doesn’t understand what the FHWA is doing. And he believes he’s not the only one that feels that way.“Arizona Game and Fish, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and Reclamation, they’ve all raised alarm bells at what the Federal Highway Administration has done,” he said.McSpadden works with the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued the FHWA last year, along with other groups like the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection. Those groups say the agency didn’t go through the required environmental review process before approving I-11. This recent addition to the lawsuit says the agency also failed to analyze the highway’s impact on endangered and threatened species, including the pygmy owl, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protected in July as threatened. “It plays a huge role in maintaining the health of the Sonoran Desert,” McSpadden said. “The construction of I-11 and parts of I-11 would require the bulldozing of the Saguaro forests and Palo Verde forests that are the habitat that this owl needs to s …
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