Dave
Well-known member
With the talk and stories of the Hammonds and Bundy lately I was reminded of something which happened in my life 25 years ago. The following is absolutely true although the names have been changed to protect the guilty even though I am sure the statue of limitations has long since passed.
So back in the early 90's when I was still falling timber there was some concern over a bird called the Northern Spotted Owl. So in the fall of the year we were falling a unit of timber for Weyerhaeuser. This was the last patch of old growth in this entire watershed. I think to start the unit was about 80 acres but by this time it was probably down to 15-20 acres left standing. Well first thing one morning Faller B came over and told Faller B to come look at what was in his strip. There sitting on a limb was a pair of owls. Interesting. But not being wildlife biologist how would they know what type of owls these were. So back to work they went and a week of two later finished up falling the unit.
Fast forward to the next summer. Early one Saturday two enforcement agents from US Fish and Wildlife showed up at my door. They very aggressively asked questions in regard to those two owls. What had I seen? Who did I tell? They were there for at least an hour. Of course not being a wildlife biologist I don't know a spotted owl from a barn owl. And being in the woods every day you see all kinds of wildlife all the time so unless something was out of the ordinary why would you tell someone. That was my story and I am sticking to it. When they left I made a phone call to Faller B because I was certain they were headed to his house. Turned out there was a pair of agents already at his house. I no more then hung up the phone and it rang. It was Faller C calling me to tell me that two agents had just left his house and he thought they were headed my way.
It turned out that 16 agents descended on 8 fallers homes all at the same time. This was very orchestrated. The area these fallers live in is probably 40 miles by 20 miles yet they all arrived at the same time. Also I doubt that there are 16 enforcement agents for USF&W in the state so some of these people were imported from outside the area. Also they knew were all 8 lived. Remember this is in the early 90's before everything was available on computers. How did they know who we were and where we lived? They had put in a lot of time, research, and organization. Nothing became of all this but it is one small example of the power the Feds are willing to put behind something.
So back in the early 90's when I was still falling timber there was some concern over a bird called the Northern Spotted Owl. So in the fall of the year we were falling a unit of timber for Weyerhaeuser. This was the last patch of old growth in this entire watershed. I think to start the unit was about 80 acres but by this time it was probably down to 15-20 acres left standing. Well first thing one morning Faller B came over and told Faller B to come look at what was in his strip. There sitting on a limb was a pair of owls. Interesting. But not being wildlife biologist how would they know what type of owls these were. So back to work they went and a week of two later finished up falling the unit.
Fast forward to the next summer. Early one Saturday two enforcement agents from US Fish and Wildlife showed up at my door. They very aggressively asked questions in regard to those two owls. What had I seen? Who did I tell? They were there for at least an hour. Of course not being a wildlife biologist I don't know a spotted owl from a barn owl. And being in the woods every day you see all kinds of wildlife all the time so unless something was out of the ordinary why would you tell someone. That was my story and I am sticking to it. When they left I made a phone call to Faller B because I was certain they were headed to his house. Turned out there was a pair of agents already at his house. I no more then hung up the phone and it rang. It was Faller C calling me to tell me that two agents had just left his house and he thought they were headed my way.
It turned out that 16 agents descended on 8 fallers homes all at the same time. This was very orchestrated. The area these fallers live in is probably 40 miles by 20 miles yet they all arrived at the same time. Also I doubt that there are 16 enforcement agents for USF&W in the state so some of these people were imported from outside the area. Also they knew were all 8 lived. Remember this is in the early 90's before everything was available on computers. How did they know who we were and where we lived? They had put in a lot of time, research, and organization. Nothing became of all this but it is one small example of the power the Feds are willing to put behind something.
