Revenge of the Spotted Owl

Rose Machinery, Inc. Horrizontal Band Re-Rip Saw

Carolynne and Ray Rose operate a millwright company in Bend, Oregon. Carolynne is my daughter. Rose Machinery, Inc was founded by Ray’s father in 1978 in the midst of a booming lumber industry. In those days Rose Machinery tools were mostly sold to local companies. Today Ray sells his products world-wide, some as far away as China. What happened to the Oregon lumber industry is the sad story of environmental fanaticism and the Spotted Owl.

In the 1980s forest scientists became concerned about the declining population of a small, reclusive owl that lived in the old-growth forests of Oregon. They believed that if the old forests went away due to logging, so would the Spotted Owl. Environmental groups spotted a legal wedge in their aggressive crusade to halt old-growth logging and sued to list the spotted owl among the nation's endangered species. “What followed was one of the most gut-grabbing economic and social upheavals in modern Oregon history.”

“Sawmills were shut down and thousands of loggers lost jobs. Restaurants put spotted owls on their menus, and T-shirts and bumper stickers urged: Save a logger, eat an owl.”

In the years 1990-95, timber employment dropped by 11,000 (20%) sending families to unemployment offices and food banks. In 1993, President Clinton signed the Northwest Forest Plan which put millions of acres of federal timber off-limits to logging. The wood-based industries in Oregon were forced to import lumber from Canada, China and the tropical rainforests. “Blood lumber, as it were. You get a little gorilla meat with every log from equatorial Africa, because that is what native loggers eat for lunch.”

The greatest loss in the Spotted Owl debacle was the stable funding base for schools, roads and local government due to the loss of timber revenues. “Rural school kids get what is becoming a third world educational prospect.”

More than a decade after lumbering was halted in order to save the Spotted Owl, it is the height of environmental irony that nature is proving far more adept at getting rid of the owl than the Endangered Species Act was in saving it. The versatile and voracious Barred Owl is driving the smaller Spotted Owl out of the protected forests. Forest Rangers are now considering a Barred Owl hunting season.

The moral of the story is that environmental whackos armed with the Endangered Species Act can play havoc with the social and economic fabric of a community.

The latest and a far more serious threat is the global warming frenzy. The Fish and Wildlife Service has been asked to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act as the result of habitat loss caused by global warming and the melting of Arctic sea ice. The New York Times thinks this would be great since it would “trigger a series of protections, including identifying habitat critical to the bears’ survival and also impose obligations on all federal agencies to avoid actions that could hurt the bears’ prospects.” The result will be lawsuits against any activity (driving, barbequing, breathing…) that generates greenhouse gasses.

In California, the global warmistas have already had a negative impact. The California Global Warming Solutions Act that was passed in 2006 went into effect on Jan. 1, 2008. Because “global warming poses a serious threat to the public health, natural resources and environment of California,” all development projects are going to be subject to environmental reviews that include a climate change study.

At the Palos Verdes Library District we are embarking on a capital campaign to raise several million dollars for a major expansion of the Miraleste Branch Library. Our legal counsel warns that for any large development, “opponents will attack the method of analysis employed” thereby adding costs and delays to the construction project.

You can take it to the bank that schools, hospitals, housing and development of all kinds will be substantially burdened, stalled or even stopped by environmentalist lawsuits. The lawyers will be happy.