Audubon Society Asks for Support to Protect Older Forests

Barb Jensen of the San Juans Audubon Society writes: I know some of you are interested in this very important issue and I wanted to give you an opportunity to comment to USFWS.

The message from Shawn Cantrell of the Seattle Audubon Society follows:

20 years after being first listed on the federal Endangered Species Act, the northern spotted owl and the Pacific Northwest’s older forests on which it depends continues to decline at alarming rates.  These forests are world leaders in storing climate-warming carbon, and protecting the owl’s habitat also contribute to saving the planet and humanity from the ravages of climate change.  The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is currently developing a revised Recovery Plan for the owl.  We need your help to ensure that this new plan will actually lead to restoration of healthy populations of owls.

It is vital that the Fish & Wildlife Service hear from the public; please submit a comment today.  While the current draft is an improvement over earlier efforts in the Bush Administration, there are still a number of deficiencies in the plan that need to be addressed.  Your message can be simple; tell the agency  —

The recovery plan needs to be based on sound science, protecting all owl habitat and nest sites.  A robust network of habitat reserves, based on the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, is key to owl recovery.  I urge you to revise the draft plan to ensure that it incorporates the recommendations from conservation organizations and the independent scientific peer review teams.

E-mail your comments to: NSORPComments@fws.gov

Other points you may want to include in your email —

There are several positive aspects to the draft recovery plan, particularly:

• An emphasis on protecting all high quality old-growth forest habitat and occupied nest sites regardless of ownership;
• Recovery criteria to establish a stable and well distributed population throughout its range;
• Recognition of threats from habitat loss, the lack of adequate regulatory mechanisms by the states and, potentially, from barred owls; and
• Pursuing innovative modeling, established demographic studies, and experimental removal of barred owls.

There are a number of deficiencies in the draft plan which still need to be addressed, including:

• Expanding habitat protections to conserve all owl habitat and nest sites, whether or not they are currently occupied.
• Building the recovery strategy upon the existing network of “Late-Successional Reserves.”
• Establishing strategies and measurable goals to ensure that degraded areas are allowed to develop or be restored into functional owl habitat.  A “no net loss” criterion for habitat is insufficient for a species where current conservation measures are failing to stem declines in almost every portion its range.
• Providing scientific peer review and public comment on crucial habitat and viability analyses which were not completed before the draft was released.
• Reexamining key assumptions and wildfire risk analysis as requested in earlier peer reviews.
• Increasing protections on non-federal lands.  The rate of decline for owl populations in Washington and northern Oregon are cause for alarm.  Nearly a half a million acres of owl habitat was cut down on non-federal lands between 1994 and 2007.

To view the full draft of the Recovery Plan go to: https://www.fws.gov/species/nso.

For more information, contact: Shawn Cantrell at shawnc@seattleaudubon.org