By the late nineteen-eighties, it was estimated that only fifteen hundred breeding pairs survived. Since the owls depended on old growth, the only way to save them, according to biologists, was to preserve the Northwest's remaining stands of ancient trees.
In 1994, the Clinton Administration set aside some 24.5 million acres of forest to protect the owls. But the victory has proved a hollow one: northern spotted owls have continued to decline.
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