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

DATE: MONDAY, July 23, 1990                   TAG: 9007230090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MEDFORD, ORE.                                LENGTH: Short

TASK FORCE GETS FIRST LOOK AT SPOTTED OWLS

Federal officials trying to balance Northwest logging jobs against protecting the rare northern spotted owl got their first close-up look at the birds that officially become a threatened species today.

"They are a magnificent creature," said Jim Moseley, an assistant agriculture secretary and head of a committee meeting with timber industry leaders, government officials and environmentalists.

Moseley's committee represents a federal inter-agency task force charged with devising a plan that balances owl interests against Northwest timber jobs.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said last month the owl would be listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, which means the government must come up with a protection plan.

In the wake of that decision, the Bush Administration created the task force, which is to report by Sept. 1. - Associated Press

by CNB