A coalition of conservation groups announced it has intervened in a lawsuit that seeks to remove almost 3.5 million acres of land in California, Oregon and Washington from protected status. …“This is a tired story: the timber industry attempting to game the legal system in order to expand logging on our public lands,” said Tom Wheeler, executive director of Arcata-based Environmental Protection Information Center, in a joint press release issued by the coalition. “Unfortunately for them, they have to come through us first. We have stood up for the northern spotted owls and science for decades, and we aren’t backing down.” …The lawsuit, filed by timber industry representatives from the American Forest Resource Council — along with a coalition of counties in Washington, Oregon and California and the Association of O&C Counties — contends that a November 2021 rule change by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is illegal.