Spotted owls: new book
You will almost certainly never see a northern spotted owl in the wilds of southwestern British Columbia. Fewer than 20 of the birds remain, down from a historic high of 300 to 500 pairs. But that doesn’t mean you should stop caring about the species, which continues to sound the alarm for all manner of animals at risk.
Enter Jared Hobbs, Ministry of Environment biologist and professional photographer with his important and compelling new book, Spotted Owls: Shadows in an Old-Growth Forest, with text by noted Okanagan ecologist Richard Cannings (Greystone, $36.95, cloth, 136 pages).
In the summer of 2005, I accompanied Hobbs by helicopter and foot into the Stein Valley near Lillooet to see the owls for myself. The experience left me with mixed emotions: saddened to witness the downward spiral of these precious birds, but feeling fortunate to have at least seen them before they vanish altogether, the victim mainly of logging of their old-growth habitat and, to a lesser extent, of competition from the more resilient barred owl.
Hobbs’ remarkable collection of photos takes me back to the forest, deep into the owls’ shadowy world, and shows why we are all richer for maintaining ecological diversity–and what we stand to lose if we do not take care of our natural world.
For more about Jared Hobbs and his new book, please visit his website (www.hobbsphotos.com).