Forests Grow, Owls Decline

ELKCHSR

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Here is some "GOOD" science for those of you "Sky is falling" individuals that a few years ago were lambasting some on here for reasons the Spotted Owl was declining. It is still on the decline and the older forests are expanding...

Also, things I claimed at that time are showing up now with Good Science, and all of that cut and paste idiocy that was posted by a couple of people that wanted to just bury their heads i the sand and hide from what they could witness with their own eyes, is turning into absolute garbage...;)

What is really funny here is that at least one individual that is on the board, well two, said I was "stupid" and didn't understand any thing about this topic and that they had talked with their own specialists who knew every thing to show that I was wrong.. :p

I also stated at the time, that I would take them right to the source of what I was stating and they could see what I claimed and they refuted with their own lying eyes... I had absolutly no takers... ;)

So much for a higher education hunh? Close your eyes to what is right in front of you and try beating down those they appose to the point of stupidity :)

So that Buzz can't come back asking what I mean because he is so lost in understanding and translation, here is some good science in opposition of the cut and pastes and the "words" from your specialists...

It was he who just with in the last few years stated very strongly I might add, that I had no idea what I was talking about...

Well here is some proof he was wanting and asking for at the time, but as with all Good Science, takes time to formulate... :)

Forests Grow, Owls Decline Under Plan

By JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. - A decade after the Clinton administration reduced logging in national forests in the Northwest, scientists have concluded the forests are growing, but the population of the threatened northern spotted owl has declined.

Scientists reported Tuesday that the Northwest Forest Plan, adopted by the Clinton administration in 1994, resulted in an 80 percent reduction in logging on 24 million acres of land in western Washington, Oregon and Northern California.

Since the plan was adopted, medium-aged to older forests have increased by 606,000 acres to 7.9 million acres, or to about 34 percent of all forest land in the region, said Melinda Moeur, program leader for old-growth monitoring for the U.S. Forest Service.

The plan also aimed to protect the threatened northern spotted owl, of which there are about 8,000 pairs in the region.

Officials expected an average annual decline in owl numbers of 3.1 percent until enough habitat grew to stabilize populations. But the actual decline has been steeper in some areas.

Four areas in Washington saw an average 7.1 percent annual decline for the dark brown owls that inhabit forests from central California to Canada. Two study areas in southwestern Oregon saw a slight increase.

Owl populations fared slightly better on lands covered by the Northwest Forest Plan than on state or private lands, said Joe Lint, a Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist.

Scientists are not sure what is causing the declines, but possible factors include invasion of the spotted owl's habitat by the barred owl, an aggressive cousin from Canada that often drives them off, Lint said. Habitat lost to past logging, as well as wildfires, climate changes and insect infestations are also factors, he said.

The plan also failed to provide the expected timber supply and replace lost timber jobs with jobs in small towns near federal forest lands as promised, said Thomas Quigley, director of the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station.

"Many of the impacts were different than predicted," he said.

The forest plan produced an average of 421 million board feet each year — just 54 percent of what was expected, said Susan Charnley, an environmental anthropologist with the forest service.

Charnley said only 400 of the 11,000 timber jobs that have been lost since 1994 can be blamed directly on the fact that less timber has been cut on federal lands in the region. The rest were caused by restructuring in the timber industry, she said.

Compounding the economic impact of lost timber jobs has been the loss of U.S. Forest Service jobs, Charnley said. In the past 10 years, the agency's budget has shrunk, resulting in 36 percent fewer positions.
 
Hey Cheese,

So you think that less logging in what...9 years...is the reason spotted owls are declining?

Seems to me the possible reasons are EXACTLY what I told you they were...from YOUR article:

"Scientists are not sure what is causing the declines, but possible factors include invasion of the spotted owl's habitat by the barred owl, an aggressive cousin from Canada that often drives them off, Lint said. Habitat lost to past logging, as well as wildfires, climate changes and insect infestations are also factors, he said.

You made claims that you KNEW the reason for declines was because of a "lack of logging"...

Once again, you prove you really are a dumbass.
 
Hmm, well the ideal and preferred habitat for spotted owls is old growth timber...is this article saying old growth has increased in less than a decade? :confused:

How did they increase old growth timber in such a short period of time? :confused:
 
WH,

Dont forget...elkcheese said that old growth was NOT the problem with spotted owl declines.

I agree...how in the hell do you grow 200+ year old trees in 9 years????

Elkcheese calls this "good science".
 
So you think that less logging in what...9 years...is the reason spotted owls are declining?
LMAO Buzz....
You want things in black and white from other sources... Well there you go, write the editor...
Besides, it was the big clamor a number of years ago that it was those danged loggers that were creating all of the ills the U.S. have to offer....
I don't think this article helps that cause... ;)
It is much better to see what happens when good science is applied with out adding ones "emotions" into the mix...
Emotions mean nothing, which is where you are failing in your endeavors, to much emotion, not enough analytical research... :)

And your still not getting it on what is the true make up of an old growth…
But then you wouldn’t want to see what it is, so I am not going to waste my time trying to explain it to some one that can’t see any thing outside the box, or with their eyes shut to the truth because it doesn’t fit into their little mold of the universe according to Garp… :rolleyes: :)
 
Elkchsr, haven't we talked before about getting your "science" from the Associated Press?

Oak
 
Elkchsr, I think the people who say spotted owls don't need old growth are the ones using emotion instead of facts. The research has been done and milions and millions of $ have been spent, and the conclusion the biologists have come to is that the spotted owl population has declined, and is still declining due to a lack of habitat (old growth timber.) I don't care what that article says, there is no way spotted owl habitat has increased in 9 years. If anything, it has continued to decrease.
 
Elkchsr, haven't we talked before about getting your "science" from the Associated Press?
and it crawls out of the wood work to jump on the bandwagon again, where did they get their information from?... :rolleyes:

it would take more than nine years for a noticeable increase wouldn't it?

Not in that area, trees grow really fast, and the cutting was stopped by some almost two billion board feet a year. So that is a lot of trees that would have been logged and is still standing over the last bunch of years, and it has in reality been way more than nine years that the real bulk of logging has been almost stopped.

Elkchsr, I think the people who say spotted owls don't need old growth

LOL.... Why is it they found one nesting in a K-Mart sign, and on TV when they would show one, it was catching a "White" mouse. How many white mice have you even heard of in the wild especially in "Old Growth" forests?
I would say that there are or were high emotions on both sides of this fence, but what I saw from personal experience was the "Tennis Shoe Moms", and the likes that the closest they ever went into the wilds of North America who also rallied for at the owl at the time, saw it from I-90 at 70 miles an hour while heading up the pass out in your area to go skiing.

If anything, it has continued to decrease.

And how in the world could this have been, I lived out in that area (Western Washington) until only recently for most of my life, was immersed in the controversy, knew people from both sides of the fence and a lot that knew absolutely nothing except for the 1 minute spot on the news they happened to see before they went to work, and hiked thru some of the areas that were in question.

You can't equate the population growth of Sumner, Puyallup and Renton by habitat these owls come from, that is no different than wondering why elk don't live in these areas.

It was shown many years ago that the owls needed the younger forests to find food in, the "True Old Growth" every one always talks about isn't as diverse as every one is led to believe.

Next time I am out, if you would like to drive around for an extended amount of time, I will take you around and show you what I am talking about. It is very easy to see, and you can then judge for yourself. :)
 
I read an article about a year ago, scientific journal article, not AP so don't start. Anyways the basic conclusion was that the spotted owls being studied for this article were doing very well, thriving even in young, <100yrs, regeneration forest conditions. I think this study was done in California if I remember right. All this really says is that they probably don't know all the factors that influence spotted owl success and to me says more needs to be studied. Saying they have to have old growth to survive might not be so true.
 
from the USGS biological survey site:

Population assessments are further complicated by the fact that responses by spotted owls to forest management seem to vary from region to region. For example, in some portions of northwestern California, spotted owls are relatively common in forests aged 60-100 years (L. V. Diller, Simpson Timber Co., Korbel, California, personal communication), whereas few owls occur in such forests in the central Oregon Coast Range (Forsman, unpublished data).

Differential use of young forests by spotted owls probably depends on regional differences in prey populations, forest structure, and climate.

Because spotted owls use a wide range of forest types, managers have had difficulty developing a simple description of owl habitat that can be applied to all areas.

This has led to considerable debate over how much habitat is still available for spotted owls. More is known about the distribution and abundance of the northern spotted owl than about any other owl in the world, but the status of the species is still hotly debated.
 
I think one of the big reasons you really don't hear much about the Spotted Owl any more, is because most if not all of the money has dried up from the government, and the "environmentalists" won't use their own money to study this, so the extremists have moved on to greener pastures, where they can get money... ;)
 
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