The Oregon Timber shutdown due to the decline in Spotted Owl's was most likely not due to managed logging but to an agressor owl species, the Barred Owl, encroaching into the Pacific Northwest. All of the lost jobs and cities that turned into ghost towns is really a shame. Logging may have been a factor in the reduced numbers of the species initially but nature herself is the main reason why they continue to dissappear. Now they are starting to talk about attempting to remove the barred owl's so the spotties have a chance. Dude, it's natural selection. If the spottie's can't stand up for themselves then who are we to intervene into natural selection. In many government attempts in this area they often have met with horrid results. A prime example of acting on limited information and not studying or looking for the root of the problem. So what happens when we begin to emiminate the barred owls, do we wind up with a rise in the rat population?

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1185443714245600.xml

Yes DT, but how was the Barred Owl introduced to the ecosystem? It's another invasive species that is wreaking havoc on an indigenous species, one that most like man introduced.

Another prime example is something that is aiding our dwindling salmon runs, and that is man introducing species like walleye and some of the bass species to our lakes and rivers. These are invasive species, they eat so many of the salmon smolts and fry that it has helped reduce the stocks. Yeah, "survival of the fittest", but these are warm-water species introduced because someone thought it would be "fun" to catch them later on down the road, without thinking of the consequences to the ecosystem they are introduced in down the road. Oregon and Washington are now poisoning entire lakes that completely lost their native trout populations to these invasive species and re-introducing the trout (at an extremely high cost, mind you).

Lake Mayfield. Years ago they had a huge problem with squawfish so they brought in the Tiger Musky. Well needless to say the squawfish are greatly reduced but the trout are now also practically non-existent. The barred owl migrated mainly from the east due to dwindling habitat. All i'm saying is that whatever the reason for a change in species, trying to meddle in that issue usually does more harm then good. The people in charge of these things are usually far to short sighted to consider the long range problems.