Some truths about the northern spotted owls that environmentalists don’t want people to know are: other places for the owl exist, people kill other animals to satisfy human needs and extinction is a normal part of the life cycle in which they all live. Human life is more valuable than animal life.
Environmentalists tend not to like change or think that animals have the capability to make necessary changes. Spotted owls have lived for many years. They do not need to stay in the old growth trees where loggers use the timber. Protected parks and wildernesses already exist where the owls can safely live. The northwest coast is where the spotted owl makes its home. That area has millions of acres of old growth available for the owls already.
To satisfy human hunger, bison, pigeons and deer have all had to sacrifice their lives to save man. Owls are just another unfortunate species that may have to pay that price. It seems unlikely that would occur. As the forests where they currently live disappear, the owls will move to forests that thrive. Humans sometimes forget that, birds especially, learn to adapt to changing conditions. If their food source disappears, they will move to where that food is.
Whether or not the forests where the owls live now survive, eventually they may disappear anyway despite any efforts to save them. The law of nature continues regardless of what man does to try to fix it. Bison became exist, yet humans found other meat to sustain them. The passenger pigeon likewise expired, but other species took their place. Humans do need to steward those animals when they can. However, humans control animals not the other way around. Sometimes it is better to let nature do what it does best. In the case of the owl, as in the case of the polar bear, people need to let them take care of themselves. They can adapt if they have space in which to adapt.
Humans must change their thinking that birds and animals can’t fend for themselves. Environmentalists think that animals must have a helping hand to live. That is not always the case. Feeding wildlife in parks is an excellent example of this. When people feed wildlife, they become dependent on people and less dependent on their instincts. Environmentalists should understand this. In the case of the spotted owl, preventing the logging of the old growth trees in their habitat may have a bad effect. It eventually may become a fire danger or other natural problem which requires logging to occur anyway.
