Plan to kill 450,000 owls creates odd political bedfellows - loggers and environmentalists

"Some logging advocates are afraid nixing the plan will slow down timber harvesting. Roughly 2.6 million acres of timberlands in western Oregon managed by the Bureau of Land Management are governed by resource management plans contingent on the barred owl cull going forward, according to Travis Joseph, president and chief executive of the American Forest Resource Council, a trade association representing mills, loggers, lumber buyers and other stakeholders in the region."

"The area can produce at least 278 million board feet per year under current plans, "with the potential for significantly more," Joseph said in a mid-October letter to Congress. If the cull is scrapped, he said, the federal agency likely will need to restart Endangered Species Act consultation for the northern spotted owl, which is listed as threatened. It's a process that could take years. According to the letter, it would create "unacceptable risks and delays to current and future timber sales.""

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan would authorize trained shooters to kill up to 450,000 barred owls over three decades to reduce competition with northern spotted owls. Congressional Republicans and animal-rights groups oppose the cull. Timber interests and environmentalists support proceeding because roughly 2.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management timberlands have resource plans contingent on the barred owl cull. Those lands can produce at least 278 million board feet annually under current plans. Scrapping the cull could force a restart of Endangered Species Act consultation for the spotted owl, creating years of delays and risks to current and future timber sales.

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