Forest Lands

The Times offers incorrect information in its editorial on proposed federal listing of the northern spotted owl as threatened (“Protection--at Last,” May 2) when it cites U.S. Forest Service estimates that only “2.7 million acres of old-growth forest are left in Washington and Oregon.” The correct figure is that the agency reports more than 6 million acres in the national forests, and more than half of this lies in areas that will never be harvested. An estimated million more acres of old-growth timber are contained in national parks in the two states.

Clearly, with such an abundant resource already preserved, options must exist to accommodate both the owl and the timber-dependent communities of the region. The Times also errs in blaming the decline in employment in the forest industry on modernization. It was instead due to some mills closing down. The modernized mills, rather than laying off people, are producing more product from the logs they process. There is no prospect of running out of timber in the Pacific Northwest. But by Forest Service estimates, federal listing of the owl is expected to throw 250,000 people out of work in the small mill communities of the region.

A mill shutting down in many of these little towns is utterly devastating. People have to move away. Home values are destroyed. The tax base for schools and municipal services is demolished. Surely it is time for some common sense on this issue.

JOHN BENNETH

Regional Manager

American Forest Council

Portland, Ore.