
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990                   TAG: 9004060746
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORTLAND, ORE.                                LENGTH: Medium

INDUSTRY BLASTS REPORT ON SAVING SPOTTED OWL

The timber industry predicts economic catastrophe if the government follows recommendations to save the northern spotted owl from extinction by reducing logging in the Northwest's old forests.

"What we've been presented today is a program that forces a very stark choice between owls and people," said Mark Rey, executive director of the American Forest Resource Council in Washington, D.C. "It obviously provides a maximum advantage for the owls with significant impacts on the people."

A panel of government scientists said logging must stop in a large section of federal forests if the northern spotted owl is to be saved. The stands of old trees in the Northwest are the primary habitat for the owl.

The committee on Wednesday recommended a reduction of about 25 percent in the allowable cut of timber in national forests and a 30 to 40 percent reduction on Bureau of Land Management lands.

John Hampton, president of Willamina Lumber Co. and chairman of the Northwest Forest Resource Council, said initial estimates indicate up to 60,000 jobs in the Northwest would be lost as a direct or indirect result.

The American Forest Resource Council estimated 9,000 jobs would be lost in the region.

Hampton said his group's best hope is to get the Bush administration and Congress to consider the impact implementing the recommendation would have on the industry.

The Oregon Lands Coalition, a pro-industry group, condemned the environmentalists who have fought logging.

"The preservationists have done their deadly work," coalition Chairwoman Valerie Johnson said.

Environmentalists were elated by the report.

"This confirms what environmentalists have been saying for a number of years," said Larry Tuttle of The Wilderness Society, "that the spotted owl is in grave danger and by extension therefore the ancient forest is also in grave danger."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting a separate scientific study to determine whether the owl should be listed as a threatened species. Such a designation would mean further restrictions on logging in old-growth forests that provide the bulk of timber harvested in the region.

by CNB