Spotted-owl plans flunk peer review by scientists - AP

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - Page updated at 02:05 AM

Spotted-owl plans flunk peer review by scientists

By JEFF BARNARD

The Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The Bush administration's plans for saving the
northern spotted owl from extinction have flunked a peer review by
scientists.

Under a contract with the administration, the Society for Conservation
Biology and the American Ornithologists' Union said the government did
not consider the best available science before making room for more
logging in old-growth forests. The organizations reviewed both a draft
recovery plan and a proposal to reduce critical habitat for the owl by
22 percent.

The two proposals are key to plans to bring back clear-cut logging in
old-growth forests on U.S. Bureau of Land Management forests in
Western Oregon in order to restore dwindling timber payments to
counties.

The reviewers of the recovery plan said there appears to be a scientific
consensus that it would not only fail to bring back owl populations but
also would result in downgrading its status from threatened to
endangered.

-snip-

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003835158_spottedowl14m.html

---

Also: Science Ignored In FWS Spotted Owl Recovery Plan - Wildlife Society via ENN

[sandnsea]

1. The old-growth is becoming extinct

There's only 4% left. Can't we just protect it and dispense with all this owl and vole stuff. It just makes me sick that they're clear cutting old growth.