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.”

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About The Author

Ralph Maughan

Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.

2 Responses to Spotted-owl recovery gets another look from Obama administration

  1. jdubya says:

    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.

  2. Leslie says:

    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.

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‎"At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour."

~ Edward Abbey

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