Coincident with a scheduled local meeting to discuss the future disposition of the Coos Bay Wagon Roads, a long debated plan to save the endangered spotted owl will be released by US Fish and Wildlife at the end of the week.
The draft plan it is based on drew harsh criticism from both sides. Conservation groups felt it didn’t protect enough habitat. The timber industry felt it didn’t allow enough logging to supply mills and reduce the threat of wildfire.
Dominick DellaSala of the GEOS Institute, a conservation group, hopes the plan ushers in a new era of logging to restore the health of forests, rather than to extract timber.
“We’ve been at this for decades, like a big tug of war, and neither side is winning this,” he said. “If we are going to move ahead, the administration needs to take the old forest off the chopping block and go in the direction of a restoration economy, not just for the owl, but for clean water, fish and wildlife and the old growth ecosystem.”
