Experts: Spotted Owl Recovery Plan Doesn't Make It

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - The Bush administration's plans for saving the northern spotted owl from extinction have flunked a peer review by scientists.

Under a contract with the administration, the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists' Union said the government did not consider all the best available science, a requirement of the Endangered Species Act, before making room for more logging in old-growth forests.

This story is especially enlightening from several aspects. First, note that the group who made the pronouncement that the recovery plan is not good is a "peer review" panel made up of actual scientists. The Bush Administration, in its attempts to blow smoke up the anal pore of the public since the day it took office, has bewailed and bemoaned the topic of peer review. If its not peer reviewed then its no good. Anyone who has published more than one scientific paper knows that peer review is how you keep science honest. They bitch and complain about how things that are not peer reviewed have no standing.

Now we have an august group of ornithological peer reviewers saying the spotted owl plan sucks. I'm sure the Bushies will agree since this is exactly what they harp about. I used to believe in the tooth fairy also.

The second interesting and aggrevating part of this story is this. In the early 1990s when the spotted owl issue was at its zenith this worthless blowjob getting guy named Bill Clinton came up with a plan to resolve the issue. It was called "Jobs in the Woods" and it was designed to help retrain loggers who had lost their jobs because of spotted owl protection so they could get jobs in the tech industry and elsewhere. The Jobs in the Woods Program was wildly successful. It was axed when the Bushies came to town.

Now all we have is a horses ass in the White House who wanted to curry favor with the logging industry (no doubt to get their campaign contributions) by raping and pillaging the old growth forest for short term economic gains.

There are two kinds of people who go into wildlife biology. There is one kind who puts the earth above all else and won't bend for political will. There is the other kind who won't rest until they get a GS-15 or SES position and they will kiss every higher ranking ass along the way to get there. I hope the latter all rot in hell for selling out the nation's resources, things like Spotted Owls, just for a higher grade level.