in four of the resulting logs to be shipped overseas.
The University of Oregon’s Western Natural Re-
sources Law Clinic (WNRLC), which specialized in
environmental law, worked with nature organiza-
tions to develop a strategy to combat the govern-
ment. The clinic’s lawyers decided to argue that the
northern spotted owl should be placed on the en-
dangered species list. Because the owl lived in the
threatened forests, its placement on the list would
prevent the government from logging there under
the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Environmentalists had used the ESA in 1973 to
stop the Tellico Dam in Tennessee from being built,
because it would have encroached on the habitat
of the snail darter. Using the same strategy, the
WNRLC and activist groups argued that the north-
ern spotted owl nested and reared its young only in
old-growth forests, which were set to be cut by log-
ging companies. Each pair of owls needed one thou-
sand acres or more of uncut forest to rear their
young. Without this unspoiled acreage, the spotted
owl would disappear.
Of the nineteen forests targeted for cutting, thir-
teen held spotted owls. If the spotted owl were placed
on the endangered species list, cutting in national
forests would be reduced by 50 percent. The owl had
been studied by the federal government for inclu-
sion on the the list, but the government had de-
murred. When the WNRLC argued its case in fed-
eral district court in Seattle, the judge ruled that the
government had acted illegally by not placing the
owl on the list. Lawsuits against the government by
activist groups tied the issue up in court, and no lum-
ber was harvested.
Impact Eventually, Congress brokered a compro-
mise that favored conservationists. Logging was re-
duced by 50 percent, and the federal government
would not sell timber from areas identified as spot-
ted owl habitats. At the same time, the timber indus-
try was spared drawn-out lawsuits and court chal-
lenges. The controversy became important both for
residents of the Pacific Northwest and for the Rea-
gan administration, which was ideologically opposed
to precisely the sort of federal interference with busi-
ness interests represented by the ESA.
Further Reading
Chase, Alston.In a Dark Wood: The Fight Over Forests
and the Myths of Nature. New Brunswick, N.J.: Trans-
action, 2001.
Yaffee, Steven Lewis.The Wisdom of the Spotted Owl:
Policy Lessons for a New Centur y. Washington, D.C.:
Island Press, 1994.
James PauffSee also Environmental movement;Exxon Valdez
oil spill; Reagan, Ronald; Watt, James G.Springsteen, Bruce
Identification American singer-songwriter
Born September 23, 1949; Freehold, New JerseyA critical and popular success as the decade began,
Springsteen became in the 1980’s a genuine cultural phe-
nomenon, someone whose multiplatinum albums and ex-
tremely popular tours made him by 1985 one of the world’s
most talked-about entertainers.Bruce Springsteen released five albums during the
1980’s,The River(1980),Nebraska(1982),Born in the
U.S.A.(1984),Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Live, 1975-85(1986), andTunnel of Love(1987).
Each album sold well: Four reached number one on
theBillboard200, and the other reached number
three.Born in the U.S.A., however, sold in such num-
bers (15 million copies in the United States alone)
and for so long (eighty-five weeks in the top ten) that
it warrants consideration alongside Michael Jack-
son’sThriller(1982) and Prince’sPurple Rain(1984)
as the most important album of the decade.
To understand the extraordinary popularity of
Born in the U.S.A., one must look at the cultural mi-
lieu into which the album was released. The year
1984 was both an Olympic year and an election year.
Staged in Los Angeles, the 1984 Summer Olympic
Games kindled in Americans a new and unabashed
patriotism, as the nation celebrated not only its
Olympic athletes but also the people (notably Peter
Ueberroth) responsible for staging a globally ad-
mired Olympic Games. Sparked by the Olympics,
American patriotism was stoked into flame by Ron-
ald Reagan’s reelection campaign, a campaign whose
message, “It’s morning in America,” resonated pow-
erfully with Americans feeling good—but wanting
to feel better—about their country.
With patriotism in the air, Born in the U.S.A.
(whose cover featured an American flag) seemed to
represent another reason for Americans to feel goodThe Eighties in America Springsteen, Bruce 909