Pacific NW - Northern Spotted Owls Down 50% In 10 Years

[hatrack]

EDIT

"Spotted owl numbers have fallen by roughly half over the past decade in parts of Washington and Oregon's Warm Springs Reservation, and they have dwindled by nearly a quarter in sections of Oregon's coast and Cascade ranges. In only a few areas are the owls holding their own.

"Things are not getting better," said Eric Forsman, a research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station and an author of the new findings, the first in five years. "What's really dragging things down is what's happening in Washington." There are signs that an ongoing proliferation of barred owls may in places have become a greater factor in the spotted owl's demise than habitat destruction from logging. Barred owls are larger and more aggressive than spotted owls, pushing the spotted owls from their nesting areas.

EDIT

Timber groups, meanwhile, question the value of setting aside forests if spotted owls are no longer using them. "If the habitat is being occupied by a more aggressive cousin, all the other work is meaningless," said Chris West of the American Forest Resource Council in Portland. The Bush administration wants to increase federal lands logging to bring it in line with the output projections of the forest plan.

EDIT

Biologists said the drops in Oregon and California are slow enough the species might hold on there for decades, but it likely cannot survive many years of the sharp drops it has endured in Washington. "If that continues for very long, you rapidly lose your population," Forsman said. The drops are puzzling in part because much of the old growth freed up for cutting by the Northwest Forest Plan has not been cut due to protests and legal battles, although the Bush administration is now pressing for such cutting to proceed."

EDIT

[arissa]

1. So the logic of the logging companies is..

since the endangered owls are being pushed out of their habitat, we should destroy their habitat? That way they can't be pushed out of what doesn't exist! That'll save the owls!

Besides, spotted owls aren't the only endangered species to rely on those forests. I really freakin' hate these bastards.

[mmm]

2. The evil is truly mind boggling

Whatever is worst for the country and the world
is the only path they persue, and they are relentless.

[amazona]

3. I wonder what role global climate change has in this

I've wondered about the march west of the Barred Owl. Rather than allowing the timber industry to cut every last tree in Oregon, they might do better to consider controls on the Barred Owl population in the affected areas. I don't know if I'd call Barred Owls larger, maybe they are, size is hard to judge in the field, but they are certainly an assertive species.