<Ki> But tens of thousands of family wage job were lost in the woods an mills, sacrificed on the environmental alter of the Spotted Owl

You know - I did a little research on those tens of thousands of lost jobs.

Many of the jobs in the Pacific Northwest could be saved simply by restricting the export of raw timber, a practice driven by the higher profits made through sales outside of the U.S. In 1988, nearly 4 billion board feet of raw logs were exported from Washington and Oregon. Had those logs been processed in the U.S., thousands of jobs could have been generated.

. As protests mounted in the region in the early 1990s, with dead owls tacked onto roadside signs and "owl fricassee" facetiously placed on the menus of cafes in timber country, some estimated that the Northwest Forest Plan could result in the loss of up to 125,000 direct and indirect jobs. The number is now thought to be considerably lower. One 1995 estimate by the Forest Service said that 400 jobs had been lost as a result of the logging restrictions.

Me thinks not such a big deal after all, exxept we actually preserved some old growth forests on public lands, which are owned by all, even east coats liberals.