October 28, 2021: The last owls
As the last ancient forests of British Columbia disappear, species like the northern spotted owl are going extinct. With only one breeding pair left in the Canadian wild, activists say the choice is between profit and preservation.
Read an excerpt from the story in BESIDE:
At kilometre 12 on the logging road, Joe Foy steps out of his pickup truck and gazes across the Spuzzum Valley canyon in southwest BC. “See that corner over there,” he says, pointing to a forested slope where the canyon widens like an hourglass. “That’s where the last two owls are.”
In the distance, framed by a periwinkle blue sky, the peaks of the Coast Mountains are splashed with snow. The forest glitters emerald and jade in the April sun. Somewhere in the canopy below, nesting in a centuries-old cedar tree or Douglas fir, is the only breeding pair of northern spotted owls left in Canada. At this very moment, the female owl might be sitting on eggs or shredding a bushy-tailed woodrat to feed a hungry chick or two.
The old-growth forest along the lower slopes, where the owls are nesting, is darker and less uniform than the lighter second-growth that carpets the valley bottom. “The valley’s been logged to rat shit,” says Foy, who has a boyish appearance despite his greying hair. “But there’s something about this place that has resulted in the last pair of spotted owls being here. That’s not something any human decided. That’s something they decided.”