by Mark Hume - Globe and Mai l- Monday, October 8, 2007 - Page A3

As great efforts are made to preserve the threatened bird, logging continues to destroy its home

VANCOUVER -- For years government biologists have been transecting the most rugged wilderness in southern British Columbia, playing amplified sound recordings into the night air in a strange and dangerous scientific ritual.

Tramping through the woods after dark, guided by lights strapped to their heads and carrying emergency supplies in backpacks in case they get stuck for the night by impassible terrain, they repeatedly broadcast the territorial call of the endangered spotted owl - which is likely to become the next species to disappear from the Canadian landscape.

The owl counters hold their breath after each broadcast, hoping that the distinctive four- or 11-note territorial declaration of a rare, living spotted owl will come drifting back to them from the lonely forest.

They rarely hear the reply they are seeking, however. More numerous barred owls, great horned owls, saw-whet owls and pygmy owls respond, but the spotted owl is seldom heard because there are only 18 left in B.C.

That is it for all of Canada - 18 lousy birds, shivering in the darkness.

Today, after the recent capture of a lone female at S&M Creek, near Pemberton, there are also four owls in captivity, where it is hoped that they will breed inside protective cages.

With the capture of the S&M owl (environmental cynics say the initials stand for sadomasochism) the government breeding program suddenly becomes plausible because she is a sexually mature bird.

Already in captivity at the Mountain View Conservation Centre in the Fraser Valley, is an adult male named Skye.

Two, sexually immature juveniles are at the Grouse Mountain Refuge for Endangered Wildlife.

If Skye and his new partner (she will be named at a fundraising event Oct. 18) mate successfully next spring, it will be the first time in Canada that spotted owls have been bred in captivity.

The plan is to collect and breed enough spotted owls to one day start repopulating empty forests of B.C.

"I think we are going to be successful," said Gordon Blankstein, Mountain Views president.

"Of course, there is no road map."

Mr. Blankstein said he hopes several pairs can be introduced into a large pen that is being built, with a replicated forest inside, and that they will then choose their own mates and build nests.

This is a splendid effort in itself. But there is a big problem with the B.C. governments owl plan.

The old growth forests on which the spotted owls depend are systematically being eliminated even while the owls are being rounded up for captive breeding.

"What is going on?" asked Andy Miller, an owl biologist who works with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.

He has watched logging break the spotted-owl habitat around Pemberton into increasingly smaller islands.

Logging was stopped around S&M Creek - but only until the owl was caught.

"Why were they cutting its habitat in S&M Creek in the first place?

"It looks to me like all they wanted to do was get this bird out of the way so they could continue logging," Mr. Miller said.

The government has a strategy to protect spotted-owl habitat.

But it is a sham.

The province pretends to be saving owl habitat but issues marching orders that there be "no net loss of timber supply."

This is problematic, because the owls need big chunks of old-growth timber to survive. Scientific studies show a bird needs 3,500 hectares of forest.

Last year the government announced it was setting aside 363,000 hectares for owls - but Mr. Miller pointed out half of that is in parks, the other half will be partly logged, and much of it is in forest not suitable for spotted owls.

Internal government e-mails obtained by Gwen Barlee, of the Wilderness Committee, show that last spring Myke Chutter, the B.C. governments bird specialist, expressed concerns about the spotted-owl plans.

"This is not a population augmentation issue - it is a critical-habitat protection issue," he wrote to one official.

Later he summed up his feelings about a spotted-owl planning meeting this way: "Disappointing to say the least - my take is that this is a recipe that pretty well guarantees extirpation over time."

With the capture of the S&M Creek female there is one fewer owl out there, one less voice to call back in the wilderness to the spotted-owl spotters.

The silencing of the owls by chainsaws is not something the government should be proud of.