The idea of sending hit men into the forest with shotguns to kill the spotted owls’ rivals would be laughable if it were not part of a major tragedy. An entire industry in the Pacific Northwest was devastated and thousands of good-paying jobs were lost based on a questionable assumption that the survival of the spotted owl depended upon getting loggers out of the woods. This in spite of the fact that biologists knew of the inexorable inroads of barred owls into the habitat 20 or more years ago.
I am sure that many, if not most, of those devoted to the preservation of the spotted owl are ardent adherents to the religion of Darwinism, whose faith rivals that of any fundamentalist. If they were true to their principles, they would let the spotted owl go the way of the dodo bird. Natural selection and the survival of the fittest are supposed to constitute the engine of evolutionary progress. Why persist in throwing sand in the gears?
J. David Zimmerman
CARSON