Jobs and Owls

Contrary to your May 16 editorial, “Environment: Not Giving a Hoot,” the Bush Administration most assuredly gives a hoot about owls, people and the timber-dependent communities in the Pacific Northwest.

The Bush Administration’s preservation plan would save 1,300 breeding pairs of spotted owls at a cost of about 15,000 jobs; the recovery plan required by the Endangered Species Act would save 2,300 breeding pairs of owls at a cost of 32,000 jobs.

The difference: some 17,000 more jobs will be available, and some 1,000 fewer pairs of owls will survive, if the preservation plan is approved by Congress.

The Administration plan would manage 2.8 million federal acres especially for preservation of the owl, in addition to 2.1 million acres of national parks and wilderness that already have protected habitat.

As for the Earth summit next month, that conference was called to promote environmentally sensitive sustainable development, and the Administration’s preservation plan is a prime example of how that can be accomplished.

MANUEL LUJAN JR., Interior Secretary, Washington