Posted on 04/28/2003 2:05:57 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Hindsight is 20/20, they say, and sometimes we can get mad enough to see spots. The spotted owl fiasco being a case in point.
In February 2003, after completing a 12-month review as required by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the California spotted owl, a native bird found in forests of the Sierra Nevada, the central coast range, and major mountain ranges of southern California, doesn't warrant ANY protection under the ESA.(1)
The Service concluded, based on the best scientific and commercial information available, that the overall magnitude of current threats to the California spotted owl does not rise to a level requiring Federal protection. The California spotted owl still occurs throughout all or most of its historical range, with approximately 2,200 sites or territories in the Sierra Nevada and southern California where spotted owls have been recently observed.
Due to overregulation which virtually stopped logging in Pacific forests, regulations which the Service now claim were never needed to "save" the spotted owl, forest fires are soaring (see chart). What isn't logged by humans is now burned by Mother Nature. Amazingly, all these fires appear to have not bothered the birds one bit. They simply flew away when threatened, begging the question: If all this fire didn't burn the birds out, why was logging considered such a dire threat?
The Sacramento Bee reported California timber harvest levels slashed by over half over ten years resulting in 70 percent of California's wood fiber now being imported. Timber mills operating in the West plummeted and thousands of families lost their source of income.
The only corporations that actually made out like bandits on the spotted owl fiasco were those in the conflict industry. They produced a steady stream of propaganda which resulted in record profits, on which, of course, they paid zero corporate taxes because their work was considered "charitable" and "for public benefit."
Was this nightmare necessary to "save" the spotted owl? In hindsight? No. If this spotted owl fiasco isn't enough to make you see spots, we don't know what is.
NOTES:
(1) See "California Spotted Owl Doesn't Require ESA Protection, Wildlife Service Concludes," US Fish & Wildlife Service news release, Feb. 10, 2003.
See also: Fur Commission USA Press Kit Special Feature : Regulating the Conflict Industry.
First off, BRAVO for a well reasoned response to the sometimes illogical gut reaction that those of us in the timber industry must deal with on a daily basis. I wish more folks had the objectivity you do Dr. Frank.
Personally, I got in to forestry because of my love for the forest. For many years I got up in the morning and looked forward to going to work. I thinned overstocked second growth, repaired poor road drainage and, generally, improved every parcel of land that I worked on. I did it for me (selfish I know) because it made me feel like I was making a difference. To a certain extent, I did it for my kids too, because I believe that we should leave the earth a better place then when we found it.
Sadly, over-regulation in the name of so-called endangered species has virtually destroyed the industry that I have worked so hard to become a part of. The consequent denial (that this could really happen) and depression triggered by the loss of a livelyhood has devastated many in my community (myself included). Fortunately, people are starting to realize that the environmental utopia promised by the professionals at the Sierra Club and World Wildlife Fund are empty lies.
You're right "wilderness isn't static; it changes, with or without humans." . I, and many of my friends in the industry have tried to change it for the better. In the place of thanks or appreciation for our actions, we have been demonized and riduculed as nature rapers. Today in California, foresters have been turned into pencil pushers -- writers of endless studies called Timber Harvest Plans (Environmental Imapact Reports). So society has now alienated those of us who are trained to produce the environment that many in society claim to want, but don't know how to achieve.
Like you, I don't have all the answers either, but something is wrong when people destroy a profession based on nothing more then emotion.
Thanks God one of us has real good start down the "all the answers" road.
Natural Process, the answer book.
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