GRANTS PASS — The timber industry has lost the latest round in the long-running court fight over the marbled murrelet, one of several threatened species that were targets of political pressure by the Bush administration.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., denied an American Forest Resource Council challenge to a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to leave the marbled murrelet on the threatened species list.

In a ruling on procedural grounds, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates found that the timber industry failed to show there was any concrete action to challenge — the five-year review of the bird’s status that was being challenged amounted to a recommendation, and there had been no change in the bird’s status.

Conservation groups said they hope this is the end of efforts to deny protection to the marbled murrelet, which is declining in numbers from California to Alaska and was a key species in development of the Northwest Forest Plan, which reduced national forest logging by more than 80 percent in the region to protect fish and wildlife habitat.

“The science is clear that the murrelet needs protection and no one has disputed that,” Josh Osborne-Klein, the Earthjustice attorney who represented conservation groups that intervened in the case on the side of Fish and Wildlife, said from Seattle.

He added that in light of the Tuesday ruling, he hoped Fish and Wildlife would reconsider its proposal to reduce the area of old growth trees that serve as potential nesting sites — known as critical habitat — by 95 percent.

American Forest Resource Council Vice President Christ West said they are reviewing the ruling and may adopt a new course and directly petition to have the bird taken off the threatened species list.

“The bird spends 90 percent of its time on the ocean and needs a four-inch branch with moss growing on it for a nest,” West said from Portland. With millions of trees qualifying as nesting sites, “Nesting habitat is not a limiting factor. It’s at the fringe of its range and there’s stuff going on in the ocean. It’s being used as a surrogate to regulate forest management.”

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Joan Jewett said they were pleased the judge supported their position.

Fish and Wildlife agreed to the five-year review in a Bush administration settlement of a lawsuit brought by the timber industry.

A Fish and Wildlife Service document obtained by The Associated Press indicates that Fish and Wildlife staff originally found that marbled murrelets in Washington, Oregon and California warranted protection as a separate population group, but was reversed by Bush administration officials at Interior, including former deputy assistant secretary Julie MacDonald.

MacDonald resigned last May after the Interior inspector general found she had bullied scientists and improperly leaked information about endangered species.

 to private groups.