Spotted Owl Recovery Plan Threatens Old Growth Forests in Pacific Northwest

Northern Spotted Owl. Photo: USFWS

The administration’s Spotted Owl Recovery Plan, which would reduce or eliminate protection for the Northwest’s old growth forests, has failed the scientific peer-review of all three of the scientific societies that analyzed it. Conservation groups are urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to withdraw the plan and to allow the creation of a new recovery plan based on the best available science. If the agency chooses not to do so, the groups are urging Congress to intervene and require the agency to start over.

Please consider editorializing against this proposal that threatens the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, and the wildlife habitat, clean drinking water and abundant recreational opportunities they provide.

Recently, letters from 113 scientists and 23 members of Congress urged Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne to withdraw the Draft Spotted Owl Recovery Plan. For additional background see The Washington Post’s Scientists See Politics in Spotted Owl Plan by Juliet Eilperin, and McClatchy Newspaper’s Protection plan for owls not worth a hoot? by Les Blumenthal. In Feathering the Nest, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch opines: “The Fish and Wildlife Service now is trying to figure out what to do with the discredited recovery plan. We suggest that it start from scratch with the owls in mind -- and without the political interference on behalf of the timber industry.”

The Spotted Owl recovery plan should be withdrawn and the FWS should appoint an independent team of owl scientists to develop a credible plan using the Northwest Forest Plan as a starting point.

Political Interference Lead to Flawed Owl Recovery Plan

Scientists on the owl recovery team complained political interference had undermined the draft plan. The draft wrongly claimed that the invasion of the Barred Owl into Spotted Owl territory was a greater threat to the species than habitat loss. The plan’s first option reduced protected owl habitat by 35%. Its second (and preferred) alternative requires no fixed habitat protection at all. The draft recovery plan was also used to justify a concurrent proposal to reduce Critical Habitat for the owl by 22 percent.

The recovery team member’s concerns were confirmed when the draft owl recovery plan failed scientific peer review. Two scientific societies hired by the administration to review the draft plan The American Ornithologists’ Union and the Society for Conservation Biology, found that:

“The recovery team failed to make use of the best available science, and, in fact, appears to have selectively cited from the available science to justify a reduction in habitat protection.”

The reviewers concluded that the plan would fail to restore owl populations and would likely cause the species to be up-listed to Endangered. A third review by The Wildlife Society confirmed this finding and concluded that the recovery plan was fundamentally-flawed and needed to be completely redone. Comments prepared by American Bird Conservancy can be viewed at http://www.abcbirds.org/spottedowl.htm.

Owl Plan Threatens Old Growth Forests Managed by BLM

The draft owl recovery plan is already being used to justify a new plan by the Bureau of Land Management to remove protections for 800,000 acres of old growth forests and significantly boost logging of trees more than 200-years old. As part of the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, the BLM is proposing to eliminate most old growth reserves and open these now-protected areas to logging. This area is an owl stronghold and a key connecting corridor between the Coast Range and the Cascades. This harmful plan should be withdrawn and revised after a credible owl recovery plan is developed.