In Oregon, Both Owls and Public Libraries Are Endangered

"Last fall, Congress failed to reauthorize a $400 million annual subsidy to 41 states to help rural counties prop up their local economies. Oregon took the biggest hit -- $150 million. Jackson County lost $23 million and had to slash everywhere, from reducing jail beds to cutting search and rescue teams.

The 15 libraries serving this rural forest community lost $7 million in federal funding this year -- nearly 80 percent of the system's budget. [Now] Jackson County [is shutting] down its entire public library system in what's being called the largest library shutdown in the United States.

"Libraries are so much more than just libraries in rural areas. This is where all the town meetings are held, where all the kids come after school, where everything -- everything -- happens," said Ted Stark, interim library director for Jackson County. Indeed, today's libraries have evolved from merely loaning out books to providing Internet access, reading hour for babies, community meeting centers and art galleries.

The crisis in southern Oregon can be traced not only to changing funding priorities on Capitol Hill, but also to [the] spotted owl and a shrinking timber harvest.

[In 1954 The] federal government agreed to split timber revenues on the acreage with Oregon. Over the next 50 years it was a lucrative arrangement, and timber money was used to build courthouses and jails, pave roads and free Oregonians from having to pay sales taxes.

The good times petered out in the early 1990s, when the northern spotted owl was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, all but shutting down large-scale logging.

While promising to come up with rules for a more ecologically friendly logging method, Congress agreed in 2000 to continue 'safety net' payments to rural counties for six more years. But no one did the hard work of figuring out how to balance the timber industry with nature. So the checks stopped in December 2006."