spotted owl

[slo coach]

Excuse my KEE WEE ignorance, but what the _ _ _ does spotted owl.its what for dinner mean?   is it some sort of cultural thing ? or private jjoke?

  cheers from down under...slo coach

[cb400bill]

Humor.  Big controversy about timber industry versus enviromentalists.

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Ethics and the Spotted Owl Controversy

By Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez

For hundreds of years, a handsome, dark-brown owl with white spots has made its home in the lush, "old-growth" forests of the Pacific Northwest. Under the multilayered canopies of these 200-year-old forests, the owl, known as the northern spotted owl, has fed off the rich plant and invertebrate life created by decaying timber and has nested in the cavities of old trunks. But the towering cedars, firs, hemlocks, and spruces which have served as the owl's habitat, also have become a primary source of timber for a multi-billion dollar logging industry. Over the last 150 years, as a result of heavy logging, these ancient forests have dwindled. Only about 10% of the forests remain, most on federally owned lands. And as the forests have dwindled, so too has the number of spotted owls. Biologists estimate that only 2,000 pairs survive today.

In 1986, a worried environmentalist group petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the owl as an "endangered species," a move that would bar the timber industry from clearing these lands. In June 1990, after years of heated negotiation and litigation between the government, environmentalists, and the timber industry, the northern spotted owl was declared a threatened species. Under this provision, timber companies are required to leave at least 40% of the old-growth forests intact within a 1.3 mile radius of any spotted owl nest or activity site, a provision that is vehemently opposed by the timber industry. Industry repres-
entatives claim that the measure will leave thousands of Northwest loggers and mill workers jobless, and insist that such protectionist policies thoughtlessly fail to take into account the dire economic consequences of preservation. Environmentalists, on the other hand, argue that society has a fundamental obligation to preserve this rare species and the wilderness it inhabits.

The controversy over the northern spotted owl follows on the heels of debates over dolphins, whales, snail darters, and desert tortoises, each raising questions concerning society's obligation to protect animals threatened by extinction. In the case of the spotted owl, we must ask whether and to what extent preserving endangered species and the wilderness they inhabit should take precedence over other...

[Red01]

Good or bad, the Spotted Owl issue has decimated the US's Pacific Northwest logging industry. Cities and towns that once thrived because of the timber industry are now mere shells of their former selves. Besides the timber industry impact, the owl (and other endangered species) has also impacted the areas open to mechanized recreation.

[tacoman]

We have a funny scenario taking place now.  Our wild salmon, which is protected by the endangered species act, are being devoured by an overpopulation of sea lions.  Sea Lions are protected by the marine mammal protection act.  These are two different branches of the government.  Its a total stalemate. They want to stop the sea lions but they can't.  The Indians, with their treaty rights in hand, are now in the mix. We've had some clowns out there trying to throw firecrackers at them (at the sea lions, not the Indians) but it doesn't seem to work.  In a strange twist of nature, a pod of killer whale have shown up and have been devouring the sea lions, essentially balancing nature.  What if we were to leave more alone?  As a side note, the sea lions are from California (the root of many of our problems!)

[B6Matt]

Sea lions (California, Stellar, etc.) have been there, oh, a couple of hundred thousand years.  Now all of the sudden THEY are at fault for the decimation of the wild salmon runs.  Hmmm....  Perhaps the overfishing, hydrodams, pollution, loss of habitat, human-induced decrease in sea lion predator population) has a LITTLE to do with the problem.

On the spotted owl controversy, never mind the fact that there was about only 10% old growth forest left.  The change over to mechanized (fewer human loggers) harvesting of second-growth trees was inevitable, so don't blame the environmentalists for trying to protect what little is left of the NW old growth forests.  The timber companies are more at fault for the logging employment situation in the NW, IMHO.  (Mechanization, exporting unprocessed logs to Japan, etc.)

Just another perspective from a former Oregonian.