Spotted Owl Recovery Plan Fails Peer Review
Scientists Call for New Plan that Protects Old Growth

Comment Period Reopened Until October 5

The administration’s Spotted Owl Recovery Plan has failed the scientific peer-review of all three of the scientific societies that analyzed it. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has reopened the public comment period until October 5, and also reopened public comment periods for two other proposals that threaten the Northwest’s old growth forests by reducing the designated Critical Habitat for the Spotted Owl and Marbled Murrelet.

Please consider editorializing against these three proposals that threaten the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, and the wildlife habitat, clean drinking water and abundant recreational opportunities they provide.

Spotted Owl. Photo: USFWS

The Spotted Owl recovery plan should be withdrawn and the FWS should appoint an independent team of owl scientists to develop a credible plan using the Northwest Forest Plan as a starting point. FWS should also withdraw plans to reduce Critical Habitat for the Spotted Owl and Marbled Murrelet and develop new proposals to increase habitat protection for these rapidly declining species.

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 uplisted 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.

The public can submit comments on these three proposal until Oct. 5, to Patrick Sousa, Chief, Endangered Species, Pacific Regional Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services, 911 NE 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97232, by faxing to 503/231-6243 or by email to owl-murrelet@fws.gov Comments prepared by American Bird Conservancy can be viewed at http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/opinions/sousaletter.html.

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.

ABC submitted a public comment on the Western Oregon Plan Revisions available at www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/stories/blm_owl.pdf. For more information see http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/wopr/index.php.

Marbled Murrelet Critical Habitat Nearly Eliminated

The FWS is proposing to reduce by 94% the Critical Habitat designation for the federally endangered Marbled Murrelet, a seabird that nests in the branches of old growth trees. A 2004 population status review found the Marbled Murrelet population in Washington, Oregon and California is declining and that the extinction risk outside of the Puget Sound Area is 100% within 100 years. The report found that suitable breeding habitat was decreasing and that it was unrealistic to expect that the species will recover before there is significant improvement in the amount and distribution of available habitat.

The Marbled Murrelet has also been the victim of political interference with implementation of the Endangered Species Act. A lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity is challenging the administration’s plan to remove the murrelet from the endangered species list because the best available science indicating the species needs additional protection was ignored.