Saga of the Northern Spotted Owl

For those interested in the saga of the spotted owl we highly recommend the book by Dr. Benjamin B. Stout entitled The Northern Spotted Owl, an Oregon View, 1975 - 2002. In 165 pages, 15 chapters, the author skillfully presents the pros and cons of the spotted owl controversy and traces the history of its development.

Dr. Stout has been in forestry since WW II, and served as forestry school dean and experiment station director in Montana. He has since volunteered as a natural resource staff person for Oregon Representative Liz VanLeeuwen, District 37. Representative VanLeeuwen diligently saved all papers pertaining to the spotted owl. The author examined the materials piece by piece and established a database of 1300 items. From that database 360 citations are used to under gird the story presented.

In the author's words, "What becomes evident as the story unfolds is that the checks and balances on which our system is supposed to function failed. Questions about where and how owl sampling was done, about the range of forest conditions that could support owls, about what is old growth, about the role of federal forests in community stability, about the impact of the ESA on people and communities, about personal biases influencing scientific findings, and about scientific objectivity and academic freedom were widely debated and rarely resolved.

"Here is a record of what an intensely interested legislator knew, how she knew it and how she tried to influence the flow of events."

The author commented to me, "Had good mensurationists been involved in the early stages of NSO sampling this book would not have happened."

The book is available at $16.95 plus S&H from http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/view-item?item=2924&201121539-25807aaa,
 or 1-888-232-4444.