Word: timber
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...this bewilders timber-industry leaders, who say there are plenty of owls, plus abundant old-growth stands set aside in wilderness areas, that are safe from the saw. In Oregon about half the state's estimated 3 million acres of old growth cannot be logged because it is unsuitable or designated as wilderness. But that leaves 1.5 million acres of old growth that can be cut. Some of these areas contain no owls and are not likely to be protected...
...understand what is at stake in human terms, it helps to visit a community that depends on timber for its existence. Take Oregon's Douglas County, which, like the fir, is named for the Scottish botanist David Douglas. Oregon produces more lumber than any other state, and Douglas County boasts that it is the timber capital of the world. It stretches from the Cascades in the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. There one can tune in to Timber Radio KTBR, feel the roads tremble beneath logging trucks and watch children use Lego sets to haul sticks...
...controversy is on everyone's mind there, and the owl gets much of the blame. A banner headline in the local paper declared: SAVING SPOTTED OWL SEEN AS THREAT TO SCHOOLS. Douglas County may lose more than $13 million a year in timber revenue that the Federal Government returns to the county to help pay for public administration, roads and schools. At the local Ford dealership, the only owls that are welcomed are those made out of ceramic, which stand on the roofline warding off swallows intent on building nests under the eaves. Cars and trucks are not selling...
Mill town after mill town is buried beneath an avalanche of contradictory statistics tossed out by timber-industry officials and environmentalists. "To put it bluntly, we don't know what the hell is going on," says Burson. "We're being blackmailed and threatened from both sides. Industry is saying 'Support our side, or you'll lose your jobs.' Environmentalists are saying 'Support our side, or you won't have clean air to breathe.' People are scared to death...
...farmer growing a crop and do it better than nature," he says. "I can remake the old forest the same way nature did, only quicker." Talk like that riles environmentalists, who see the forest as more than just another fungible asset. Steve Erickson, whose father was in the timber industry and whose brother works in a mill, is writing a book about hiking trails. But Erickson finds it hard to share his vision of the forest. "It's like being in an artery in God's body," he says. Biologists and botanists speak in more scientific terms. They...