[August 8th, 2007]

BIRDS IS BIRDS

Just as I am disappointed whenever I see a church behaving immorally, so do I cringe when I see cutting-edge WW serve as an echo chamber for ignorance. Quoting The Oregonian, of all things! Referring here to your Aug. 1 "Winners & Losers" feature, under Losers: "These days, the spotted owl has more to fear from its cousin, the barred owl, than the buzzsaw."

This is like saying, our problem is not the water coming into the hose, it's the water coming out of the hose. The Barred Owl is a generalist that tolerates clearcuts. (Nowadays we have more clearcuts.) The Spotted Owl, a specialist that requires old growth. (Nowadays our old growth continues to rapidly shrink.)

I predict this news flash from a future issue of WW: "These days, the old growth loving Northern flying squirrel has more to fear from its city park rival, the immigrant red fox squirrel, than it does from the loss of big old trees on Mount Tabor and in Forest Park."

We can choose to knock back the complexity of our ecosystems all the way from old growth to vacant lot to Mars-level life forms if we want. We can decide that because crows, starlings, rock doves and English sparrows seem to enjoy parking lots, we don't need trees.

Don't you want The Oregonian to be quoting YOU?
Steve Rice
Southeast 55th Avenue

THE CAT HUNTER

Noah Greenwald, in WW's recent article on cougar management ["Who Let the Dogs Out?," Aug. 1, 2007], made the same mistake too many environmentalists made regarding HB 2971. He confuses the substance of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Cougar Management Plan, about which there can be legitimate debate, with a bill that did nothing but allow the agency to use volunteers to do what otherwise would have been done by agency staff.

Ballot Measure 18 specifically allowed government agencies or their agents to hunt cougars for management purposes. A later attorney general's opinion found a technical difficulty with ODF&W's statutory authority to use those agents, and the bill simply resolved that legal question. It did not make any changes in whether or not the management plan would be implemented, or the extent of agency hunting activities. It merely changed who would carry them out.

I was the legislative liaison for the Oregon Chapter of The Wildlife Society, the national scientific society of wildlife biologists that argued in favor of the bill. To use this bill as an example of Kulongoski and 15 Democratic legislators voting against the environment is just plain wrong.
Stephen Kafoury
Government Relations
Southwest 6th Avenue

CORRECTION

Burgerville, which our Best of Portland Readers' Poll (July 25) honored for Best Burger (Cheap), uses Country Natural Beef, not Painted Hills Natural Beef. WW regrets the error.