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Loggers as well as environmentalists were equally outraged last week
by a set of contradictory American decisions over the fate of the northern
spotted owl. The decisions will probably prolong political battles over
efforts to save the endangered owl, which is considered an ‘indicator species’
for the health of ancient forests in Washington, Oregon and California.
Only a few thousand of the owls are left in the wild.

Loggers protested against a draft ‘recovery plan’ for the owl, written
by the Fish and Wildlife Service, that would preserve 2.2 million hectares
of forest where the owl lives. That plan was immediately undermined by the
separate decision of a committee of high-ranking government officials –
able to overrule the service, and known as the ‘God committee’ because of
its authority to decide whether species go extinct – decided to allow logging
on 688 hectares of owl habitat. Some of the tracts to be logged lie within
areas that the recovery plan attempts to preserve.

Manuel Lujan, Secretary of the Interior, then announced his own ‘preservation
plan’ for the owl that would allow more logging. It would preserve only
1.1 million hectares for the owl, but 17 000 more jobs for loggers. Lujan
admitted that his plan violates the Endangered Species Act, and it could
only take effect if it is passed by Congress.

David Wilcove of the Environmental Defense Fund calls Lujan’s proposal
the ‘recovery plan from hell’. He says that it is the latest ploy by the
Bush administration to undermine the Endangered Species Act by framing the
issue as narrowly as possible: as a battle of owls versus jobs. The message
of the spotted owl is that logging will destroy entire ecosystems and many
species, says Wilcove.