At the risk of being a hard nose, I think its best if agencies aren't
forgiving of their sensitive species info to the general public.
Biologists know of the areas and are required to try and protect listed
species like the NSPO, so not telling the ecotourist isn't going to mean
that forests can't be saved. I guess I'm a skeptic but how do you tell if
somebody is a NSPO killer trying to act naive or a bona fide ecotourist
when you meet somebody for the first time. Even then ecotourists can
harrass birds (its happened many times before).

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA

"Birds don't read bird books. (That's why they are seen doing things they
are not supposed to do)." -Mary Wood


On Fri, 6 Aug 1999, Mary Manson wrote:

> >Me: Any owls around here?
> >FSR: Why, did you see one?
> >Me: No, but we'd like to.
> >FSR: Well, we have Spotted Owls, but they're nocturnal.
> >Me: Oh. Do you know where any are?
> >FSR: No. But if I did, I couldn't tell you.
> >
> >Notice "couldn't"; she made it clear that she had been
> >instructed to conceal the presence of Spotted Owls, at
> >least, if she knew of them, and wasn't permitted to try to
> >distinguish between bona fide ecotourists and avicidal
> >loggers.
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >P W (Bill) Smith
>
>
> OK - I'm dense - spell it out for paranoid me.
>
> Is this good for the bird species that bona fide ecotourists don't know
> where there are birds to add to add their life lists ?
>
> Or is this bad for the logging companies since the public doesn't know there
> are birds there so loggers can log the area ?
>
> Toni
>
> O
>
>
>
>