For Immediate Release – Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Top Gun US Owl Catcher Descends on S&M Creek Spotted Owl

BC Government continues allowing Clearcutting Activities as Owl Eludes Capture Again

Vancouver, BC – Last night, just after the clearcutters retired for the evening from logging S&M Creek near Pemberton, BC, Dennis Rock, a prominent US biologist with the forest industry-led National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI) appeared at the site. Rocks mission was to capture the elusive and endangered spotted owl of S&M Creek for placement in a captive-breeding program at the Langley-based Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Centre. “The BC government desperately wants this endangered owl out of the way so they can continue to log its home,” said Wilderness Committee staff scientist Andy Miller.

Observers at the Wilderness Committees Spotted Owl Research Camp, established to protest the logging of the spotted owl site, noted the appearance of Rock, apparently accompanied by BC government staff, at about 7 PM Tuesday. Camp observers report having heard what sounded like a spotted owl later in the evening, suggesting that the owl capture team may have been unsuccessful yet again.

Camp observers think this is the first time that the United States government has sent a spotted owl specialist across the international border to capture a Canadian spotted owl. “Although we support the captive breeding program, we do so only on the condition that the BC government identify and protect critical and recovery habitat as required by law, and that all logging cease immediately and permanently in spotted owl territories like S&M Creek,” said Miller.

“We are surprised that the US government would besmirch their scientific reputation by sending an owl capture specialist into this most controversial of spotted owl sites. We feel strongly that the most important spotted owl sites to protect are those from which owls are captured. But the US government, by participating in BCs owl capture program is implicitly condoning the logging of the very sites that are most important for the release of captive-bred baby owls. Even the captive breeding centre staff support us on this one. Its a no-brainer,” said Miller.

Mountain View biologist Vince Beier was quoted on the front page of the Vancouver Sun newspaper on August 8, 2007 as saying “the areas that they [the BC government] are taking them [spotted owls] out from the wild are areas that are being logged right now. Its unfortunate we have to bring them into a captive situation, but if we leave them any longer they are going to be extinct” said Beier.

“The Wilderness Committee wants the BC government to intervene and rescind all 12 remaining planned clearcuts at S&M Creek. The future of the spotted owl and the health of old-growth forest ecosystems in Southwestern BC comes down to what the BC government decides to do here and now,” said Miller.

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For more information contact Staff Scientist, Andy Miller @ 604-683-8220 or 604-992-3099