The last building block of the Obama administration's strategy unveiled Wednesday to keep the northern spotted owl from extinction nearly doubles the amount of Northwest national forest land dedicated to protecting the bird by the Bush administration four years ago.

When forest harvest levels fell 82 percent on public forest lands in the years after passage of the Northwest Forest Plan, forests became a significant carbon “sink” for the first time in decades.

After nearly 30 years of non-stop court and political battles, the Obama administration hopes two of the authors of the Northwest Forest Plan can show federal agencies a new path forward.

Federal biologists are pondering whether they should start shot-gunning hundreds, if not thousands, of barred owls to keep them from driving spotted owls to extinction even faster.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar met with the timber industry and conservation groups Monday to find a way out of decades of bitter conflict over logging in Western Oregon.

Economists have noted that the prosperity enjoyed by timber towns in the 1980s is unlikely to come back any time soon.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced a crop of timber sales for U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands that will help keep Oregon mills open while the Obama administration works on a long-term forest management strategy.

The Obama administration on Thursday scrapped the Bush administration's last-ditch attempt to boost logging in Northwest forests by scaling back protection for the northern spotted owl.

The Obama administration is withdrawing the Bush administration's last attempt at increasing logging in Northwest forests occupied by northern spotted owls and salmon.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say there is peace in the valley, but we are closer than ever before," said Shane Jimerfield, director of the Siskiyou Project, a local conservation group that grew out of logging protests.

In dry forests, trees older than 150 years could not be cut, but younger trees in those stands would be logged to reduce fire danger, improve forest health, and promote fish and wildlife habitat.