Posted on 04/03/2006 5:53:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - Citing federal budget cuts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided it can't afford to pay an outside contractor to develop the long-overdue recovery plan for the northern spotted owl, so it will develop the blueprint for saving the threatened species from extinction on its own.
"We had hoped to get a special funding allocation to handle a contractor who could help us with what will be a very labor intensive recovery planning process," said Fish and Wildlife spokesman David Patte. "It just didn't come to bear."
The owl's dependence on old growth forests forced a dramatic cutback in logging on national forests in Washington, Oregon and Northern California in the 1990s. However, owl numbers continue to fall as the species confronts new threats with no clear way to stop any of them — disease, wildfire and the barred owl, a cousin from eastern Canada that is pushing spotted owls from the best habitat.
The decision to pursue a recovery plan, shelved before it was finished in 1992, is part of the settlement of a timber industry lawsuit demanding a new look at the federal lands set aside from logging as critical habitat for the bird.
Patte said the cost of paying a contractor to do the recovery plan was estimated at about $400,000. A draft is due in nine months, and a final plan in 18 months.
Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, the Portland timber industry group that brought the lawsuit, said he was disappointed at the decision, because Fish and Wildlife has had a poor track record for getting work done on time. By comparison, a status review of the owl done by a private contractor two years ago was done professionally and on time.
That review, the first ever done outside the government, was coordinated by the Sustainable Ecosystems Institute in Portland. It concluded that owl numbers were continuing to drop, despite logging cutbacks to protect old growth forest habitat.
"There is a pressing need for clear leadership and strong action for the conservation of the species," said Steven Courtney, vice president of the institute.
Given the worsening condition of the owl, a recovery plan could lead to even more stringent restrictions on logging, particularly on state and private lands, said Susan Ash, conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland.
"It's possible the federal government could consider the situation so dire for the northern spotted owl that they would go to simply a no-take policy, where you just can't destroy spot owl nests," said Ash. "It could — might possibly — render a lot of habitat conservation plans null and void."
Habitat conservation plans are agreements between landowners and Fish and Wildlife that balance protections for a species against landowners' rights to use their property.
The northern spotted owl was designated a threatened species in 1990. Lawsuits by environmental groups forced the Clinton administration to adopt the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994, which cut logging on federal lands in the Northwest by more than 80 percent. The Northwest Forest Plan became a de facto recovery plan for the owl, but did not cover state and private forestlands.
Actual timber production under the plan never met its targets, leading the timber industry to press the Bush administration to boost logging on federal lands. Private lands increased harvests to fill the gap.
As a result of the American Forest Resource Council lawsuit, Fish and Wildlife agreed to take a new look at the critical habitat designated for spotted owls, particularly more than 1 million acres designated for timber production under the Northwest Forest Plan.
As part of that effort, Fish and Wildlife agreed to finally write a recovery plan, which had been abandoned as the Northwest Forest Plan was being developed. That plan divided federal lands into areas where logging was the primary goal, and areas where fish and wildlife habitat was the primary goal.
A spotted owl that Forest Service employees have named Obsidian swoops in and grabs a mouse off a stick in the Deschutes National Forest near Camp Sherman, Ore., May 8, 2003. Citing federal budget cuts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided it can't afford to pay an outside contractor to develop the long-overdue recovery plan for the northern spotted owl, so will develop the blueprint for saving the threatened species from extinction on its own. (AP Photo)
That would look great on a paper target.
Bottom line: the Spotted Owl "crisis" was invented as part of a ruse by the Feds to steal a privately owned parcel of redwood forest.
The Northern Spotted Owl is genetically indistinguishble from the common California Spotted Owl found all along the west coast. Its "endangered" status is completely artificial.
Parody of Keep Your Hands to Yourself by The Georgia Satellites)
I got a little chainsaw in my pickup
And I love to hear it sing
Gonna hit up the old growth baby
Harvest some trees
But each time I try
I catch the same old grief
Don’t do no cuttin’
No clearin’
You’ll make all the critters leave
Well what ‘ll they do
When they run outta paper towels
Well they can wipe their butts
With a Spotted Owl
Oo-thee environmentalists are whinin’
Sayin’ don’t treat the owl this way
But I got to make a livin’
I got bills I gotta pay
Say we’ll run out of forest
I said I don’t see how
Twenty years of cuttin’ and clearin’
I ain’t never even seen an owl
Well what‘ll they do
When they run outta paper towels
Well they can wipe their butts
With a Spotted Owl
”Hey man, you always want to be a logger?”
“Hell,does an owl sit in the woods?”
“Not for long.”
What ‘ll they do
When they run outta paper towels
Well they can wipe their butt
With a Spotted Owl
How about a recovery plan for the communities cursed by the Northwest Forest Plan? This is what happened to the Klamath River corridor post northern spotted owl:
The mid-Klamath River Corridor experienced a population decline of 22%. The number of residents aged 0-4 and 20-29 dropped by over 50%, while age 5-19 and 30-44 dropped 45%. Age 45-64 grew 86%. There was a 41.8% drop in school enrollment. Median household income declined from $31,236 to $20,924 (drop of 33%.) The number of households earning less than $10,000 grew by 24%. Unemployment climbed from 16.18% to 19.60% in 2000. (It is currently 18.8%) Manufacturing jobs (lumber mill) which had accounted for almost one third of the jobs dropped to 4%. One community on the River now has more than an 18% unemployment rate.
Countywide, our unemployment rate stands at 11%. In the fioscal year 1989/90, Siskiyou County received as much as $4.2 million a year as its 25% share of timber revenues from the National Forests. At one time, we had 50 sawmills. Now we have none.
About 23% of our children now live below the poverty line and 55% live in low income households.
"It's possible the federal government could consider the situation so dire for the northern spotted owl that they would go to simply a no-take policy, where you just can't destroy spot owl nests," said Ash. "It could — might possibly — render a lot of habitat conservation plans null and void."
Habitat conservation plans are agreements between landowners and Fish and Wildlife that balance protections for a species against landowners' rights to use their property.
The northern spotted owl was designated a threatened species in 1990. Lawsuits by environmental groups forced the Clinton administration to adopt the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994, which cut logging on federal lands in the Northwest by more than 80 percent. The Northwest Forest Plan became a de facto recovery plan for the owl, but did not cover state and private forestlands.
Where does one start with such a poorly written article? According to the Audubon women, cutting nests is OK This is wrong, it is federal crime to harm an endangered species... a federal go to jail type offense.
So, if the Northwest Forest (ie Clinton) Plan doesn't cover private land, why do the private landowner's have Habitat Conservation Plans (ie permits) from the fed gov?
Here's the skinny: the enviros hate the individual Habitat conservation plans because they are backroom deals between big industry and the feds - in which they have no input.
The other issue here is that the feds once again, will fail to abide by a court order. In this case, delaying the recovery plan indefinitely.
M2...thanks for the stats on the state of the economy on the Klamath...
Here's an interesting article by my friend Jim Beers.
The Eastern Spotted Owl
http://www.eco.freedom.org/el/20050301/beers.shtml
FBI in action
bttt
You have FReep Mail sir!!!
Actually, these "barred" owls hail from NYC and hang out in bars, thus... "barred" owls, get it?
Yes, Norm... They migrate out here to the west and since they're not such picky eaters, they eat everything... then when they're full of the grub they've ripped off from the Northern, California and Mexican spotted owls, they procede to breed with the spotted owls, breeding them out of existence!!!
The moral of this absurd, but true story is... "Man plans and God laughs!" (ancient Hebrew Proverb)
International Paper is selling off it's last 5.1 million acres of forestland to use nothing but imported wood to make paper from now on. Why is it that I find this so disgustingly WRONG? You'll find the news item on BigCharts.MarketWatch.com. That's a bigger batch of land than New Jersey!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.