Partial Plan to Protect Owl to Cost at Least 1,000 Jobs

The Bush Administration today announced partial plans for protecting the rare northern spotted owl at the cost of at least 1,000 logging jobs in the Northwest.

But for the second time in less than a week, officials delayed issuing a complete blueprint designed to save the bird without devastating the region’s timber industry.

“The Administration is deeply concerned both about endangered species and the livelihood of families in the Pacific Northwest who depend on timber production,” Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter said.

Yeutter and Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. appeared at a news conference to discuss their plans to save the estimated 6,000 owls, which were declared a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act last week.

Lujan and Yeutter said the Bureau of Land Management will implement a plan that will reduce timber harvests on BLM lands in Oregon and Northern California and result in the loss of 1,000 jobs.

But they called for formation of a government committee to come up with a specific plan to protect the owl on Forest Service land.

“Today we have set into motion a process to balance our responsibility in preserving the owl and forests while protecting the economic lives of American men and women who live and work in the region,” he said.

An earlier proposal by government scientists would have resulted in the loss of 7,600 jobs as a result of reductions in BLM harvests and the loss of another 20,000 jobs by the end of the decade as a result of reductions in Forest Service harvests.

Lujan said the BLM proposal will protect 125 more pairs of owls than would the proposal offered by the government scientists, led by Forest Service biologist Jack Ward Thomas.

The Forest Service will operate under existing forest plans until the new timber task force can come up with an interim conservation proposal for the owl.

Under the earlier recommendations of the government scientists, harvests in the region would have been cut back to between 2.3 billion and 2.5 billion board feet.

The Fish and Wildlife Service last Friday announced its decision to classify the owl as a threatened species entitled to protection under the Endangered Species Act, the same law that has protected the grizzly bear and bald eagle.