Wild Life: Juvenile Spotted Owls

High among my most sacred memories is meeting my first northern spotted owl. It is impossible to describe or show in photographs the beauty of this animal. For me, it was an unforgetably powerful communion. The dark blue eyes of the juveniles seem to go on forever, almost like you are looking into the depths of time. There's nothing quite like it.

The threats to survival of this endangered owl are many and growing, from the twin and intertwined threats of clearcutting and invasive barred owls to misinformation sown by the logging industry and attendent press to armed and irate locals. Many logging families in the Northwest are upset at the moratorium of the rare old growth forests left on public land and blame owls and treehuggers rather than the unsustainability of the logging practices that helped bring us to this point.

"Cut and Run" is a common practice in the industry. Private companies have clearcut most of the vast private forests of Oregon, and replacement tree harvests take a long time to grow back. Meanwhile, companies can conveniently focus on overseas assets while unrest builds at home.

This unrest flared especially strongly during President Clinton's Forest Summit. As a hooter, I was shot at (by a poacher at night, who missed), effectively refused service at a local gas station, physically threatened both by drinkers and drivers, and harrassed almost continually by rangers.