Passage Three
It has been two decades since the fate of a bashful bird that most people had never seen came to symbolize the bitter divide over whether to save or saw down the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest. Yet it was not until Thursday that the federal government offered its final plan to prevent the bird, the northern spotted owl, from going extinct.
After repeated revisions, constant court fights and shifting science, the Fish and Wildlife Service presented a plan that addresses a range of threats to the owl, including some that few imagined when it was listed as a threatened species in 1990.
The newer threats include climate change and the arrival of a formidable feathered competitor, the barred owl, in the soaring old-growth evergreens of Washington, Oregon and California where spotted owls nest and hunt.
One experiment included in the plan: shooting hundreds of barred owls to see whether that helps spotted owls recover.
Even after all these years since the spotted owl became the cause célèbre of the environmental movement, it is far from clear that the plan is a solution. Advocates on both sides say it will inevitably be challenged, and both sides have expressed frustration with the Obama administration on the issue.
The spotted owl is declining by an average of 3 percent per year across its range. While some populations in Southern Oregon and Northern California are more stable, some of the steepest rates of decline are here in Washington. Some study areas in the Olympic and Cascade ranges show annual declines as high as 9 percent.
The listing of the spotted owl as a threatened species led to a virtual ban on logging in many older federal forests, inspiring angry lawsuits and threats of violence by rural loggers against owl advocates, who often came from urban areas.
“Nothing against the bird, but it’s wreaked a lot of havoc in the Pacific Northwest for the past 20 years,” said Ray Wilkeson, president of the Oregon Forest Industries Council, which represents loggers, sawmills and others in the industry. “A lot of human suffering has resulted from this. Now there’re new threats to the owl that may be beyond anybody’s ability to control.”
Although the plan does not map critical habitat — the mapping process is more than a year away from completion, a fact that frustrates conservationists – it proposes expanding protections for owls beyond areas currently set aside. The existing areas were outlined by the Northwest Forest Plan, which was approved a year after President Clinton’s Timber Conference, revised under President George W. Bush to allow more logging and reinstated by the Obama administration.
The American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group, said the plan would impose “massive new restrictions on both federal and private lands.”
But supporters say it will provide more wood for mills by increasing forest thinning and restoration work to battle threats like disease and fire that could increase with climate change. The plan would provide timber companies incentives to create potential spotted owl habitat. Officials from the Forest Service and from the Bureau of Land Management, which oversee logging on federal land, expressed support for the plan.
While timber advocates question protections for a bird that some say may be bound for extinction, conservationists say that it is too soon to give up on the spotted owl, and that the fight to save it has served broader benefits of the forest, from cleaner water and air to habitat for hundreds of other species, including endangered salmon.
“The spotted owl is the icon,” Dr. Forsman said, “but there are a lot of other players in terms of species and protecting biodiversity in these forests.”
Questions 11-15 are based on Passage Three.
11. The purpose of the new government plan is to______.
A. save Northern spotted owl
B. save the Northwest forest
C. list environmental threats to the Northern spotted owl
D. list the Northern spotted owl as a threatened species
12. Which (from Paras. 3, 4) of the following is NOT true?
A. The number of barred owls grows fast.
B. The spotted owl is hunted in the forest.
C. The number of spotted owls is in decline.
D. The barred owl is a newcomer to the forest.
13. Who doubt about the plan?
A. Only timber advocates.
B. Only owl advocates.
C. Advocates from both urban and rural areas.
D. Both owl advocates and timber advocates.
14. Conservationists feel frustrated because______.
A. the new mapping of habitat in the protection for owls is slow to complete
B. the new mapping of habitat for owls will extend beyond presently set areas
C. the revised Northwest Forest Plan under President Obama is maintained
D. President Bush revised Northwest Forest Plan and allowed more logging
15. Dr. Forsman wanted to express in the last paragraph that_______.
A. the spotted owl is a rare species
B. there are a lot of other players in the forest
C. the spotted owl needs protection
D. some other species are equally important
