Nature is a British Publication. No wonder the best of advocacy no longer is noted in any American publication unless it comes from Sierra Club. The assault on the environmental movement has been unbelievably undermining to even most of it's scientists. Demoralizing to say the least, although 'the best' of them are still willing to speak out and stand their ground. The Union of Concerned Scientists needs to get involved and network with the other groups of scientists feeling 'the assault' against species and lands they have studies for decades while acting to protect them for the 'public trust' of the people of the USA.
Concerned scientists and Democratic congressmen each sent their own letter to the US Department of the Interior on 2 October, protesting against the agency's draft plan to save the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) from extinction.
The rescue plan for the conservation icon rests heavily on controlling another owl — the barred owl (Strix varia) — that out-competes its spotted cousin. But the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists' Union, both hired as peer reviewers by the government, as well as three owl experts who were also consulted, all felt that this emphasis was strange. They say that habitat loss due to logging is the clear cause of the owl's decline.
Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office has begun examining several decisions based on the Endangered Species Act that have been criticized by environmentalists, including that on the spotted owl.
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