beginning to question whether or not these species need to be saved. According to environmentalist numbers, there are approximately 2,700 owls in 21 million acres of forest in Arizona and New Mexico (Blandford, 1997). This means that there are about 700,000 trees per owl. This fact raises questions about whether this much land is needed in order to preserve these animals. Forestry companies’ state that these animals could thrive on much less land than is allocated. For example, if the owls were cut back to about 500,000 trees per owl, that would be 200,000 trees that could be logged.There is no clear-cut resolution to the debate over the spotted owl. There are several different possible solutions and outcomes but they won't please everyone involved. The most important thing to do is to find a reasonable compromise soon. The environmentalists would like to see the harvesting of lumber in the Pacific Northwest portion of the United States stop completely and the logging industry would like to go back to unrestricted logging but of course neither of these are an option. Erin Bonner of the American Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE) thinks we need to "get across to the public that it's not jobs versus owls it's short-term profit versus destroying ecosystems." If the logging industry learns to work more efficiently they could preserve the forest by cutting individual trees which would produce more jobs in the Northwest region. The AFSEEE believes that thousands of jobs can be created in these areas if they focus on forest preservation instead of clear-cutting a whole area. The consensus among environmentalists is that we should protect the ecosystem of the Northwest at all costs, not just for ourselves but for our future generations. One possible solution is to limit the amount of public land loggers are aloud to use and set aside this land for the spotted owl and the ecosystem of the old growth forests. T...
