John Hopperstad Q13 FOX News reporter

7:06 p.m. PST, February 29, 2012

Millions of acres of forest have been protected to save the spotted owl, an endangered species. Lumber communities have been turned to ghost towns. But despite all of that, its population has dropped by 40 percent over the last 25 years. Now, the spotted owl’s fate might depend on the demise of one of its cousins.

The barred owl has migrated from the East Coast – and it has adopted well to life in the Northwest, becoming ubiquitous in urban and rural areas.

“You have barred owls here in the city of Seattle, you have them in ancient forests,” said Shawn Cantrell of Seattle Audubon. “I mean there was a barred owl in downtown Seattle on Second Avenue a couple years ago.”
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The Audubon Society has recently come out in favor of a government plan to help save the spotted owl. The plan has sparked controversy because it would require that more than 1,000 barred owls, which are physically larger than spotted owls, be shot.

“In an ideal world, we would have the two species simply come to their own natural equilibrium and balance between them, but the reality is the human thumb is already on the scale, working against the spotted owl,” Cantrell said.

The plan would also help manage another threat to the spotted owl: Forest fires. To reduce the risk of fires, the government plans to open up logging again in some of the protected areas. Logging would produce some jobs, but not enough to sustain a community, said Cindy Mitchell of the Washington Forest Protection Association.

Mitchell is more concerned about another aspect of the plan – protecting another 10 million acres for the spotted owl.

“The endangered species act doesn't have a stop sign,” she said. “It will throw all the resources without considering economic cost of saving a species and that's where people have to come in and say ‘wait a minute’.”

The people will get a chance to say their piece. Once the plan is finalized, the Department of the Interior will take public comments on it for 90 days.

 

well I don't know.... for some reason I am finding it difficult to really give a HOOT about this subject

 

Hardy har har har.

 

I say shoot ALL the dang owls and get back to logging.

 

I hear they taste like chicken.

 

And they eat shrews. This might be Bark's fault...

 

It's nature, when it's time to go, it's time to go. No use making lumber more expensive and costing jobs to save a god **** bird!!

 

There's no TP. Use a spotted owl.

 

Not my fault.

The funny thing is--(actually not funny) that they stopped allowing the loggers to thin out the trees in the spotted owls territory. After that there have been wildfires due to dry lightning storms that have wiped out the same areas that they were trying to protect.

I hunt deer with my Dad in the Bucks lake area. After the big fire that wiped out a whole lot of trees there are still owls in the area.

I am sure they must know what they are doing but I sure dont.

 

That's good, that's pretty good.

 

Sore subject around here.

Many families have been financially ruined because of these "protections".

Funny thing is, they discovered the bald eagles have a taste for them too and they will catch and eat them whenever possible.

The people making decisions in this country are bona fide idiots.

Time to start cleaning house this November. Again!

 

The problem is not the insufficient number of spotted owls, it's the excess number of human beings. Now, if all these whiny, cryie, environ-mentalcases would commit suicide then there would be a drastically reduced demand for human needs and the spotted owls and all the other so called endangers species can get back to overpopulating the planet and causing global warming destroying the planet.

 

You won't get any argument here. Yer smack in the middle of the foolishness. With the forest and mineral resources in your neck of the woods, you should be near the top in well being instead of near the top on the poverty list.

 

Shrew farts are the cause of global warming, the plight of the spotted owl and the cost of a cup of coffee.