Environmental groups are up in arms against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and are planning to bring action that could restrict logging throughout the West.

What’s causing all this turmoil?

A grey-feathered, red-eyed, two-pound bird — the northern goshawk.

The goshawks make their home in forests throughout North America and Europe, although they are partial to the old-growth forests of the western U.S.

Goshawks prey on smaller birds, like woodpeckers, and small mammals, like squirrels and rabbits.

But the timber industry may be killing them one at a time.

The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity and nine other environmental groups petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to put the goshawk on the endangered species list in 1991. The service declined, saying there’s not enough evidence of a “declining population trend,” according to Director Jamie Rappaport Clark.

Goshawk population studies presented by environmentalists and studies referenced by the Fish and Wildlife Service contradict each other. But one thing is certain — if you remove an animal’s home, you’ll end up removing the animal as well.

The environmental groups want logging severely restricted in areas where the goshawk lives. The loggers, of course, aren’t happy about that and will fight it to the end.

And, as always, compromise will be a rare commodity.

The environmental groups are adamant about restricting logging, since current regulations leave the goshawk virtually unprotected.

But they need to remember that logging is a valid industry on which America depends. Protecting birds is important, but so is protecting people’s jobs.

If the goshawk is placed on the endangered species list, logging will most likely be prohibited in old-growth forests. The logging industry won’t like this, but it’s something they need to do anyway. We should not be cutting down older trees, because they can’t be replaced — at least not within our lifetimes.

Coming to a compromise won’t be easy for environmentalists, loggers and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

But it’s necessary for the survival of the goshawk.