Spotted Owl Numbers Declining At Twice Fed Scientists' Predictions

[hatrack]

In Washington, the plan to save the spotted owl is not working. The little-seen bird that launched the gut-wrenching timber wars of the early 1990s is declining in this state at nearly twice the rate predicted by federal scientists. And the pace at which the bird is spiraling toward extinction is quickening, researchers say. Some of the steepest declines are in the Cascades just east of Seattle.

Two-thirds of the owl nesting sites known in Washington a dec-ade ago have been abandoned, according to state researchers. Some of those forests on private land already have been cut, meaning it will be many decades before those lands shelter spotted owls again -- if ever.

EDIT

The action that begins today at the Forest Practices Board's meeting in Olympia is only the latest chapter in a saga of timber wars that dates to the 1980s and drew national attention to the owl and the Northwest's old-growth forests. Those struggles supposedly were to end with the 1994 adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan. The basic idea was that land in federal forests -- the focus of the timber wars -- would be the main places that spotted owls would be saved. Under the plan, logging in national forests was reduced by about 80 percent. That meant the private lands at issue this week in Olympia were relatively less important. Their role was to fill in the gaps in places where owls needed older forests with big trees, but where the federal government had no national parks or forests.

The state went on to establish 13 "special emphasis areas" for the owls in those areas, making it more difficult for timber companies to cut close to spotted owl nests. But two areas recommended for protection by a state science panel, on the north Olympic Peninsula and southwest Washington, were eliminated by the Forest Practices Board. The board also reduced the size of three other areas. And even inside the "special emphasis areas," the plan fizzled. Landowners were expected to come forward with plans to preserve owls, but only one 540-acre plan has ever been approved. The areas cover 1.5 million acres. Instead, the main controls on logging came inside large circles drawn around known spotted-owl nests, and allowing no more than 60 percent of the acreage inside to be cut.

EDIT

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/235802_owl09.html

[Syncronaut Seven]

1. That's cause the timber boys are shooting them for sport

It's a big joke to them, also a federal crime.

[moez]

2. Hang on a second..... wait......

...nope... I just can't seem to make myself give a crap...

nice story though!

[phantom power]

3. Well, thanks for sharing your lack of concern, Mo.

:eyes:

[moez]

4. no problem...