VANCOUVER SUN
Latest News

Spotted owl didn't halt logging in B.C.

William Boei
Vancouver Sun

July 14, 2005
B.C. has its share of endangered, threatened and at-risk plant and animal species, but not much history of halting human activities to protect them.

The northern spotted owl, for example, was the reason the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service halted logging of old-growth forests in Oregon. (The U.S. government overrode that decision two years later to allow logging to resume in several areas.)

In B.C., the northern spotted owl, which nests in old-growth forests, is down to a few dozen breeding pairs. But logging has not been stopped to protect it, and in one case, is being allowed in a wildlife area set up to protect the owls.

Elsewhere, there have been some spectacular triumphs by environmental groups that halted major projects to protect sometimes lowly species. But they are usually temporary victories.

- At Colton, Calif., in 1999, construction projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars were halted to protect the only fly ever listed as endangered: the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly;

- At Clayton, N.C., a major highway bypass project was halted to protect the dwarf wedge mussel;

- In 2001, construction on an extension of San Francisco's BART rapid transit system was halted for months after a truck ran over a San Francisco garter snake. Dozens of the snakes were captured and relocated before the project resumed.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005