B.C. eyes breeding plan for owl

VANCOUVER, B.C. — A captive breeding program for the endangered northern spotted owl is being considered by the provincial government, but environmentalists say logging restrictions would be more effective.

Without action to protect habitat, the small bird will be extinct in British Columbia by 2010, leaders of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee said.

Scientists are divided on the question, with some saying the spotted owl could hang around for 30 years without protective measures, said Kevin Jardine, head of the British Columbia Species at Risk Coordination Office.

Scientists believe about 25 spotted owls remain in the province, down from about 100 in 1993, compared with 6,100 in the United States, where the bird's fragile status has resulted in widespread bans and restrictions on cutting in old-growth forests.

Plans to keep the bird from vanishing in British Columbia include captive breeding, moving owls, supplemental feeding and management of prey, predators and competitors, Jardine said, noting that a spotted owl had been fledged successfully in captivity in the United States.

Besides logging and other habitat loss, spotted owls have been hard-hit by an invasion of barred owls that compete for food and habitat, he added.

Joe Foy, director of the spotted-owl campaign for the wilderness committee, said the government was trying to look good while preserving timber cutting rather than trying to save the owl.

"You can get great PR by showing the little cage with the endangered critter in it," Foy said. "Meanwhile, your buddies in the timber industry are chain sawing down the rest of the habitat."

Even if a captive breeding program is successful, "if you get to the position where the only place a creature can exist is in a pen, you've lost that creature," he said.