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http://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewild/birds-1/citing-declines-groups-want-california-spotted-owl-protected.html
by Chris Clarke Logging has seriously hurt the California spotted owl, say two wildlife groups who want the bird protected under the Endangered Species Act. In a petition filed Wednesday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wild Nature Institute and Earth Island Institute's John Muir Project are asking that the rare owl be listed as either Threatened or Endangered under the Act. The groups say that while the owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) is doing okay on protected forest lands, forests where logging is allowed have seen decline in owl numbers for at least two decades. That, say the petitioners, is partly because both the intact forests where the owls nest, and the patchworks of burned forests where they often hunt, have been subject to timber harvests that don't take the health of the owl into account, say the groups. Logging has seriously hurt the California spotted owl, say two wildlife groups who want the bird protected under the Endangered Species Act. In a petition filed Wednesday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wild Nature Institute and Earth Island Institute's John Muir Project are asking that the rare owl be listed as either Threatened or Endangered under the Act. The groups say that while the owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) is doing okay on protected forest lands, forests where logging is allowed have seen decline in owl numbers for at least two decades. That, say the petitioners, is partly because both the intact forests where the owls nest, and the patchworks of burned forests where they often hunt, have been subject to timber harvests that don't take the health of the owl into account, say the groups. Story Continues Below The California spotted owl is the only spotted owl subspecies not protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Northern and Mexican subspecies were listed as Threatened under the Act in 1990 and 1993, respectively, with the former then becoming the focus of pitched battles over the logging of its habitat in the Pacific Northwest. Wednesday's petition describes five recent studies that indicate that logging in Californian forests has caused steep declines in the spotted owl population there, while forests where commercial logging is prohibited show no such declines. Competition from the related barred owls is another factor in the spotted owls' decline. The larger barred owls drive spotted owls off their territories and can even kill them. According to the petition, spotted owls seem to hold their own better when their old-growth forest territory is left intact. Logging-related fragmentation of that habitat, however, seems to give barred owls an advantage. In recent years, an increase in large wildfires has led to ramped-up logging of burned forests in California under the rubric of "salvage logging" and fire prevention. Logging in green, unburned forests has continued as well. Listing the owl would allow USFWS to designate Critical Habitat for the birds, which would force the Forest Service to take the welfare of the spotted owl into account when approving timber harvest plans on federal land. "Forest fire is not the threat people think it is, yet logging on public lands in the name of reducing fire to save owls is rampant, and is having a devastating effect on this species," said Wild Nature Institute's Monica Bond, a spotted owl biologist and co-author of the Petition. "It is estimated that there are less than 1,200 California Spotted Owl pairs remaining today, after having lost over a quarter of their population in the last two decades," explained ecologist Dr. Chad Hanson of the John Muir Project. "Their populations continue to decline. Under any formulation of conservation biology the time to list this species is now." About the Author Chris Clarke is a natural history writer and environmental journalist currently at work on a book about the Joshua tree. He lives in Joshua Tree.
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Federal Endangered Species Act Petition Filed
BIG BEAR CITY, California, December 23, 2014—The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today received a Petition to include the California Spotted Owl on the list of threatened or endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The Petition was filed by science-based conservation groups Wild Nature Institute and the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute, and is supported by numerous studies documenting that this rare raptor has and continues to decline precipitously in the Sierra Nevada and southern California. These population declines are a result of a long history of public and private lands logging in the mature forests where the owl nests and sleeps, as well as extensive post-fire logging in burned forest where the owl hunts. “The primary threats to the California spotted owl are logging, competition with invasive Barred Owls, and expanding urban development. Forest fire is not the threat people think it is, yet logging on public lands in the name of reducing fire to save owls is rampant, and is having a devastating effect on this species,” stated Monica Bond, a spotted owl biologist who is an expert on the relationship between owls and wildland fire, and co-author of the Petition. “This is the only subspecies of spotted owl that does not have Endangered Species Act protection, even though its population is declining and it faces threats similar to those which resulted in the listing of the Northern Spotted Owl in 1990 and the Mexican Spotted Owl in 1993.” The Petition describes five newly published studies showing serious declines of California Spotted Owl populations in logged forests over the past two decades, while the owl population was stable where commercial logging is prohibited. Other recent research shows these owls hunt for their small mammal prey in both green and heavily burned forests, yet the U.S. Forest Service and logging companies are aggressively cutting both green and burned trees, leading to the inability to maintain stable populations. “It is estimated that there are less than 1,200 California Spotted Owl pairs remaining today, after having lost over a quarter of their population in the last two decades,” explained ecologist Dr. Chad Hanson of the John Muir Project. “Their populations continue to decline. Under any formulation of conservation biology the time to list this species is now.” In recent years, the Forest Service and private companies have ramped up their efforts to log both dense, mature green forest and post-fire habitat, the very places that the owls like best. This includes the plan approved in August of this year to post-fire (a.k.a. “salvage”) log thousands of acres of essential foraging habitat within the territories of the 70 resident spotted owls that exist within the Rim Fire area today.  We are in the USA for the holidays, but will return to Tanzania at the end of December. We look forward to our next round of surveys for giraffe and other ungulates in January 2015, and to continuing our conservation work in the Tarangire Ecosystem. We are so grateful to our donors and supporters for helping us safeguard the wondrous creatures of the savanna. We wish all of you the happiest of holidays and a peaceful new year.
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