Well I and many of my friends growing up were loggers. Although I tend to side in favor of people over animals in many cases, I never did agree with the timber interests over the spotted owl. I used to see them occasionally when logging and actuall felled a few trees that broke upon impact with the ground spilling out babies that died. Then to find out that most of the Old growth I was cutting was being shipped to asian countries. This I do not agree with. If we need the resource to survive, then the animals take a back seat. If we want to exploit the resource so a large timber company can reap huge profits in the overseas markets, then I am against it.
They can say (Timber companies) that they are looking out for the "working man", but I managed a large ranch for the CEO of Louisiana Pacific and he closed a mill (putting over 300 people out of work) because the state was forcing them to stop dumping chemicals and waste water into a creek that fed the main aquifer for the cities drinking water. When I asked him if the mill could remain profitable with the cost of installing the new equipment, his reply was that "I will not keep the mill open for a lousy 20% profit margin". Personally, if you make 20% profit, clean up a resource, AND keep 300 people employed (and their family fed)..... That would be a winning situation. Apparently American Corporations do not see it that way.

Hopefully, I will not ever have to explain to my children/grandchildren what a Spotted Owl is, let alone that I had something to do with their extinction.......

MC