Wow, Don, you paint an awfully bleak picture of the future. There sure are a lot of half-empty glass folks posting to this thread, aren't there?

Peg: you're right. I will never be convinced that the preservation of an owl is more important than the opportunity for employment lost by the loggers when logging was stopped to preserve the habitat of the Spotted Owl.

Don and others: No one is proposing the raping and pillaging of the forests by the logging companies. I don't doubt that there were abuses in the past, but strict rules enforced by the forest service could control that.

But, as Peg pointed out in her illustration of the owl, one will never be able to convince people who view making a profit as sinful, that sensible logging operations could benefit the forests.

DougR