Owl data knowingly faulty

The Washington Times ^ | March 14, 2002 | Audrey Hudson

[madfly]

Forest Service officials knowingly used faulty data of spotted owl habitat to block logging in a California forest, according to court documents obtained by The Washington Times.

The Forest Service did not have a "rational basis" for halting the timber sale to Wetsel-Oviatt Lumber Company, said the previously undisclosed ruling by Federal Claims Court Judge Lawrence S. Margolis.

[madfly]

The House Resources Committee is holding a series of hearings on the misuse of science in enforcing the Endangered Species Act (ESA). On March 20, the committee will review legislation to amend the act.

I am searching to find who is on House Resources Committee. Please ping interested lists.

thanks

[madfly]

ping

[Carry_Okie]

Previously posted here.

[Pete53]

If all the spotted owls died and one farm or ranch was saved it would be worth it.Or if 1 job was saved for that matter

The truth is the owls will adapt to whatever happens

[backhoe]

The truth is the owls will adapt to whatever happens

Exactly- one of the biofrauds we have here is the Red Cockaded Woodpecker.... according to eco-mythology, the poor little bird can only live in old-growth forests, so we aren't supposed to cut trees.

In fact, the birds are common here inside the city limits- I see the dern things all the time in my yard- and seem to be quite happy in any tree.

[CedarDave]

Previously, a government witness and leading expert on the California spotted owl, Gerry Verner, testified the study was sound. "I came away with the strong impression that it was, in fact, within my gestalt notion of what suitable nesting habitat is after having walked through dozens of places like this throughout the Sierra Nevada and in other parts of the owl's distribution throughout the West," Mr. Verner said.

Mr. Verner must have taken a course in Spotted Owl Psychology 101, or himself nested in trees, to come up with a statement like this. Junk science, indeed!!

[Issaquahking]

Thanks for the ping. A good site to track what the green machine is doing to harm America is Here. Reason being is these people's existence depends on being able to blow the foolish greens out of the water!

[madfly]

I did a case sensitive search of Title and Author, oh well.

[DLfromthedesert]

The House Resources Committee:

Repubs: Chairman James Hansen, UT; Don Young, AK; Billy Tauzin, LA; Jim Saxton, NJ; Elton Gallegly, CA; John Duncan,TN; Joel Hefley,CO; Wayne Gilchrest,MD; Ken Calvert,CA; Scott McInnis,CCO; Rihard Pombo,CA; Barbara Cubin,WY; George Radanovich,; Walter Jones,Jr.,NC; William (Mac) Thornberry,TX; Chris Cannon,UT; John Peterson,PA; Bob Schaffer,CO; Jim Gibbons,NV; Mark Souder,IN; Greg Walden,OR; Mike Simpson,ID; Tom Tancredo,CO; C.L.(Butch) Otter,ID; Tom Osborne,NE; Jeff Flake,AZ; Dennis Rehberg,MT

Dems:Nick Rahall,WV/Ranking: Edward Markey,MA; Dale Kildee,MI; Peter DeFazio,OR; Eni Faleomavaega,AS; Neil Abercrombie,HI; Solomon Ortiz,TX; Frank Pallone,NJ; Calvin Dooley,CA; Robert Underwood,GU; Adam Smith,WA; Donna Christian-Christensen, VI; Ron Kind,WI; Jay Inslee,WA; Grace Napolitano,CA; Tom Udall,NM; Mark Udall,CO; Rush Holt,NJ; James McGovern,MA; Anibal Acevedo-Vila,PR; Hilda Solis,CA; Brad Carson,OK; Betty McColum,MN

Subcommittees

Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife, and Oceans

Repubs: Gilchrest/Chairman, D. Young, Tauzin, Saxton/Vice Chairman, Pombo, W. Jones

Dems: Underwood/Ranking, Faleomavaega, Abercrombie, Ortiz, Pallone

Forests and Forest Health

Repubs: McInnis/Chairman, Duncan, Peterson/Vice Chairman, Souder, Simpson, Tancredo Otter

Dems: Inslee/Ranking, Kildee, T. Udall, M. Udall, Holt, Acevedo-Vila, McCollum

National Parks and Public Lands

Repubs: Hefley/Chairman, Gallegly, Duncan, Gilchrest, Radanovich, W. Jones/Vice Chairman, Thornberry, Cannon, Schaffer, Gibbons, Souder, Simpson

Dems: Christensen/Ranking, Kildee, Faleomavaega, Pallone, T. Udall, M. Udall, Holt, McGovern, Acevedo-Vila, Solis McCollum

[Youngblood]

The truth is the owls will adapt to whatever happens

Is there science to back up this claim?

According to one of the standard ecology textbooks, Charles Kreb's "Ecology", a survey by Bart & Forsman (1992) revealed that the owls were not found in forests which were only 50 - 80 years old and occurred only where old-growth stands were present. Landscapes containing less than 20% old-growth forest rarely supported the species. They also found that much of the protected wilderness of the Pacific Northwest didn't support owls either as these forests were less productive because they occur at higher elevations than much of the old-growth outside of the parks. LaHaye & Gutierrez (1999) found that spotted owls in northern California nested in trees older than 300 years and more than 1.2m in diameter over 80% of the time.

Here's the references for those who want to examine the data:

Krebs C.J.(2001) Ecology: the experimental analysis of distribution and adundance. 5th Ed.

Bart & Forsman (1992) dependence of northern spotted owls on old-growth forest in the western USA. Biological Conservation 62: 95 - 100

LaHaye & Gutierrez (1999)Nest sites and nesting habitat of the northern spotted owl in northern California. Condor: 101: 324 - 330

[madfly]

Thanks for posting that.

[madfly]

ping

[Victoria Delsoul]

Judge Margolis ruled the Forest Service action was "arbitrary, capricious and without rational basis." He also found that the officials knew their findings were faulty when they ordered the sale canceled.

Bump.

[Spirited]

You mean the government lies? (sigh) Most people on this website do not believe that. They call all the others conspiracy nuts or some similar name.

[F.J. Mitchell]

THe owls were always wiser than the jackasses who were pretending to save them.

[Outraged]

bump

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[jdontom]

Same old same stuff, enviros bend science to benefit their agenda. Taxpayer pays for bad science, everybody wins?

EPA rules will not change because of the enviro lobby is so powerful. They will pay off these companys and still keep the laws on the books. Anything to make a tree hugger happy

[TigersEye]

Thanks for the flag. I think people who are truly concerned for wildlife and wild places would get more than they want (given they had some reasonable expectations) if they stopped lying to get it. Most rural folks are conservatives politically and few people truly appreciate wildlife and wild lands more than farmers, ranchers and other rural people. But I guess there is an agenda behind the 'green' movement that has nothing to do with appreciation for wildlife or wilderness. The good hearted folks who support wildlife causes need to wake up and realize that they will actually lose all that and more if they continue to back that political agenda. The 'greens' aren't about the environment they're about power and ideology.

[patriciaruth]

standard ecology textbooks, Charles Kreb's "Ecology", a survey by Bart & Forsman (1992)

The point of this article is that any scientific survey done in the era of political correctness is suspect.

Have you got some scientific paper from pre-1982 that you could cite to back up your possibly correct claim?