PORT ANGELES — An advocate for the North Olympic Peninsula timber industry isn’t sure what to make of a new study to determine whether the northern spotted owl should be relisted as endangered.
“They did so much damage in the beginning, it’s hard to image they could do much more,” said Carol Johnson, executive director of the North Olympic Timber Action Committee.
Logging was curtailed when the owl was listed as threatened in 1990, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said a loss of old-growth habitat was the primary threat to the species.
Biologists have since determined that the invasive barred owl, a larger and more aggressive cousin of the northern spotted owl, is the main reason the spotted owl was driven from its native forests in Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
The spotted owl became a symbol for protections that harm timber-dependent local economies, such as in Forks.
Johnson said the economic loss from the initial listing was “pretty much irreversible.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that a conservation group has presented enough evidence to warrant a close look at changing the spotted owl’s listing from threatened to endangered.
Agency officials say the study would take about two years.
“I don’t know what that could mean to us at this moment,” Johnson said.
“We just always expect the worst and hope for the best.”
She added: “There can always be push back.”
The Olympic Peninsula Timber Action Committee was formed in 1989 in direct response to citizen concerns about the potential loss of harvestable timber land due to the spotted’s owl listing, Johnson said.
“Right now, there are so many issues going on relative to regulations,” she said.
“I don’t know what changing the listing from threatened to endangered is going to actually mean to our industry.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
