Bush policy on the issue called “train wreck,” “unfixable”-
Spotted-owl recovery gets another look from Obama administration. By Warren Cornwall. Seattle Times environment reporter “The Obama administration signaled Tuesday that it wants to scrap a controversial Bush-era plan for spotted-owl recovery, asking a federal district court judge to let them rewrite it, rather than defend it against lawsuits from both environmentalists and the timber industry.”
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project and the creator of The Wildlife News.
You mean this?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008969301_owls02m.html?syndication=rss
“”Government attorneys cited the earlier involvement of Julie MacDonald, a Bush administration appointee at the U.S. Department of Interior, as a reason for revisiting the plan. MacDonald quit in 2007 following charges from the department’s inspector general that she repeatedly interfered with scientific decisions regarding endangered species.””
It is like the stink of a skunk: Bush will be around for a while no matter how much scrubbing we do. But this looks like a good re-do. Problem is those loggers now have their own TV show and people want to watch them cut the trees and swear at each other.
I had the wonderful opportunity in ’96-’98 to help with Spotted Owl research after the Point Reyes fire in Northern CA. They are such a tame bird that we were not allowed to divulge to anyone where we located their nests. I am not familiar with the Pacific NW, but an interesting thing we found in the field was that the Spotteds weren’t just using old growth habitat–in this case Redwood Forests. They were also using Bay/Doug fir habitat, as long as it was dense and mature enough, basically for cover from Great Horned owls, their biggest predator (“the lion of the forest”). It will be interesting to see what the administration proposes. Habitat fragmentation is usually one of the worst things for species, be it housing developments or large tracts of deforested lands.