Transcript Owls, Loggers, and Old-Growth Forests

Owls, Loggers, and
Old-Growth Forests
By Rich McCoy
Oregon’s Sawmills
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Between 1991 – 2001 Oregon had witnessed the closing of
89 sawmills.
Prineville, Oregon the Ochoco sawmill closing in 2001:
- 180 jobs
- Yearly payroll of nearly $5 million
- $8 - $10 million to contract loggers and
truckers
- Roughly $15 million annually paid into U.S.
Treasury for timber purchases on federal
lands vanished
(25% of monies generated on federal lands is shared
with local gov’t to support local schools & road
construction – a loss to Prineville of $3.75 million a year)
Additional loss
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Ochoco sawmill donations:
Prineville lost 50 scholarships
given annually to college
students, school stadium, and
local museum.
Viles family lost 2 salaries
after a combined 34 years.
Dan Viles aptitude test
showed that he would be a
good short-order cook or a
brewmaster.
Supply and Demand
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Prineville sawmill took trees
from surrounding forests for
producing boards & molding.
Its output was in high
demand.
Lumber consumption in the
U.S. was rising.
Among the local Prineville
businesses were cabinet
makers as well as door &
window manufacturers.
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The lack of demand did not
close the mill. The lack of
raw timber did.
“I speak for the trees”
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Clear-cutting was a common
practice*.
Growing national debate
about the uses of wilderness
areas caused the Forest
Service to impose restrictive
new rules.
Clear-cutting forbidden.
Thinning of stands in younger
forests acceptable but
resulted in smaller diameter
logs.
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Lawsuits by environmental
groups in an attempt to
protect the northern spotted
owl forced the Forest Service
to cut back further on timber
sales.
Lacking the needed flow of
saw timber, the mill closed.
Northern spotted owl
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Lives deep in the forests of Washington, Oregon, and northern
California.
Since the 1800’s, timber cutting and land development have
reduced the owl’s habitat by as much as 80%, threatening its
extinction.
Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973 to prevent
the demise of such creatures, and in 1990 the NSO was added to
the list of species entitled to special protection.
Owls cost money!
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Unfortunately for the wood products industry, the owls live in the
most productive timber lands of the Pacific Northwest.
Their predicament has caused federal timber harvests to decline
more than 90%. It is this decline that has starved the sawmills of
raw material.
The territory of a mated spotted owl pair ranges from 1,000 to
27,000 acres.
Spotted owls prefer old-growth forests which are forests that are
at least 200 years old. The old-growth forests are more
structurally and biologically complex than younger forests.
Old-Growth
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Have much richer biotic
communities than younger
forests and are repositories
for species that have adapted
to ecological niches created
under old-growth conditions.
The spotted owl is one such
species.
Owls nest in the cavities of
standing snags (dead trees)
and the fallen snags create
conditions that support an
abundance of prey.
The spotted owl plays a role
in the old-growth ecosystem
by culling small mammal and
bird populations.
Loss of Old-Growth
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The northwest coastal forest
inhabited by spotted owls
covered roughly 94 million
acres in the 1860’s.
Today about 30 million acres
of coastal forest remain with
7.7 million acres being oldgrowth and only 2.8 million
are closed to logging.
Most old-growth is on federal
lands managed by the Forest
Service and hold timber
auctions*.
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In 1989 scientists estimated
that only 1,550 mated pairs
of spotted owl existed. A
mated pair produces an
average of .50 young per year
and juvenile owls suffer an
88% mortality rate.
Environmentalists & The Owl
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Believed that the owl’s use of old-growth as habitat made saving
owls a convenient pretext for saving these ancient forests from
the logger’s ax.
Placed owl’s under the protection of the Endangered Species Act
which also protects geographically defined “critical habitat” of a
species.
Logging is now banned near known spotted owl nests. Even when
a nest is found empty, there is a 3 year moratorium on logging to
ensure that it is abandoned.
In 1991, timber sales virtually halted while a species recovery
plan was developed for the spotted owl.
Environmentalists…
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(continued)
Proved disastrous for the forest products industry which depended
on timber harvests.
In 1990, the year before the recovery plan was set in motion,
10.6 billion board feet of timber were cut on federal lands. After
the recovery plan was put into effect, only 0.7 billion board feet
was sold.
Hardship in the Pacific Northwest
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Hundreds of small-town
economies built on jobs
created by the logging
industry spiraled downward.
In Happy Camp, CA the
population fell from 2,500 to
1,100, and more than half
that remained were on public
assistance.
Clinton presided over a
“timber summit” where he
listened to polarized views
from environmentalists,
scientists, and timber industry
reps.
Solution sought
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Clinton administration introduced the Northwest Forest Plan
(NMFP) which attempted to appease all parties involved.
Committed $1.2 billion to retrain workers, aid small businesses,
and compensate for lost tax revenues in timber towns while
permitting logging (as long as there were no owl nests present).
Republicans began to attack environmental laws and backed the
landowners who demanded compensation for the potential monies
lost to them due to the enforcement of these laws.
In 1997 an Oregon jury awarded a corporation $2 million+ for the
value of 56 acres of timberland that it was unable to harvest
because of spotted owl nests.
It doesn’t pay to be an owl
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Debate continued in regards to the use of the timberlands.
New agreements with the landowners were put into place in which
the landowners must voluntarily agree to take conservation
measures and in return, the gov’t grants permission to log or use
the property as the landowner sees fit. (Even if it means harm to
an endangered species or its habitat).
Once a landowner receives a permit as a result of such an
agreement, it is absolved from blame if any members of an
endangered species is harassed or killed. Without such plans the
land would be rendered unusable. This is known as an “incidental
take permit”.
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Environmentalists against
these measures.
Believe that timber harvests
have been inadequately
surveyed or the presence of
species.
Lawsuits by environmental
groups tie down gov’t
agencies forcing them to put
more resources into litigation,
leaving less resources for
managing species.
In closing…
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It doesn’t pay to be an animal.
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Owl protection hurts the Pacific Northwest economy.
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The problem is the increasing demand for natural resources due
to the increase in the human population.
Because there are fewer environmental safeguards on wood
production in other countries the environmentalists have, in
effect, made species extinction and damage to forest ecosystems
an export item.