Protecting Critical Habitat for Northern Spotted Owls

California Spotted Owl

Our colleagues from the Society for Conservation Biology and The Wildlife Society visited Washington, D.C. recently to discuss the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s critical habitat proposal for Northern Spotted Owls.  They briefed Congressional staff from the House of Representatives and the Senate on how some parts of the critical habitat proposal would hamper recovery efforts for the Northern Spotted Owl and undermine the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act for all protected species.  One of the biggest problems with the critical habitat proposal is the promotion of widespread logging to reduce the "threat" of fire to owl habitat, even though the majority of scientific studies on Spotted Owls indicates that fire is not a major threat.  Several of these studies were conducted by the Wild Nature Institute.  Wild Nature Institute scientists helped prepare a fact sheet for the delegation that calls for a level-headed and scientifically based approach to dealing with fire risks (click here to download fact sheet).

---

California Spotted Owls inhabiting burned forests in the southern Sierra Nevada