Bush Seeks ‘Balance’ Between Ecological Needs, Economics

President Bush said today that the federal government needs to strike a “needed balance” between environmental priorities and economic concerns.

Addressing a controversial proposal to protect the northern spotted owl, the President told a Republican fund-raising breakfast that he rejects environmentalists who “ignore the economic consequences” of protecting such fragile species.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management said such a decision would cut timber harvests from federal lands nearly in half over the next five years, producing a net loss of about 13,000 jobs in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.

Bush said that he is concerned “about preserving and protecting our environment” but that he rejects “those who would ignore the economic consequences of the spotted owl decision. The jobs of many thousands of Oregonians and whole communities are at stake.’