The Spotted Owl Controversy

In the early 1980’s the logging industry came under fire from the Environmentalist Groups for threatening the Spotted Owl. There were mills closing down due to greater economic conditions but both the tree huggers and the burly loggers were sure the cause of all their troubles were wrapped up in that little bird. There were pictures in the news and we all knew one at a glance after the first couple of years of constant coverage of the story so you can imagine my surprise when I ran into one on the Railroad one day.

At first we marveled at the discovery as if it were a dinosaur or dodo bird but then later on in another location we found another. And before long another in an altogether different area and soon enough we found this foul to be rather common. How else could it get so much attention? If it was really as rare as portrayed in the news it should hardly ever be seen but in fact it is seen everywhere and that is precisely why it has so many enthusiasts who pity the plight of the poor creature.

We even got to witness the curious behavior of one of these birds who has flown to close to a passing train and ended up uninjured on the ground. We know it was uninjured because it flew away in the end but when we first saw it we thought it was injured by the way it was flapping along on the ground. After a while we realized it was hopping with intent along with the flapping, and soon enough it was able to clamber up a tree and stand on a limb. It was then and only then that the creature was able to fly off in the natural way with its long wings swooping way below the body.

We saw the hopping Spotted Owls more than once as it seems they had a habit of flying near passing trains, or trucks on the highway. In our travels maintaining the railroads in Northern California and Western Oregon we found more spotted owls than most other critters combined. There were some larger herds of Antelope and Elk, plenty of deer and rabbits but the Spotted Owl may well outnumber them all. Sure they couldn’t match the big numbers put up by the Starlings and Geese, or even Robins and Blue Jays but those darned Spotted Owls had representatives in every corner of every county as far as we could tell.