Spotted owls have been endangered for a while and there has been a bit of controversy between the timber industry and the animal protection groups. In like 1995 there was a plan put into place called the Northwest Forest Plan that restricted old growth deforestation and had areas that were flagged as reserves to protect the numbers of the spotted owl. There were of course opponents and such, but I just got done reading a new article about it.
Apparently "The new proposal concludes that logging in old-growth forests is now a relatively minor threat to the survival of the spotted owl, after competition from the barred owl and wildfires." Basically they are trying to push the concept that the reason the spotted owls are suffering is because another species called the barred owl, is bigger and more aggressive and is competing for the same territory and such.
The ultimate resolution of the proposal is to lure the barred owls to one of 18 sites and kill them. I am just in shock that they would actually try and push something like this but I think the paragraph that pisses me off the most is this one:
"The oversight committee ordered the recovery team to put more emphasis on threats from the barred owl. One memo directed the team to "emphasize the new science ... and deemphasize the past." Another said the plan should be "less focused on habitat preservation." A third directed the scientists to "summarize the habitat threats into less then a page" and "eliminate the reference to the (Northwest Forest Plan)."
Anyway, just needed to bitch about it a bit.
