Logging vs. the Spotted Owl: The Battle Rages On

Once again, the need for sound science outweighs political pressure. Decades after receiving endangered status through the Endangered Species Act, Northern spotted owl recovery efforts still search for a balance between logging and species survival. A new ruling by Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan determined that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s plan for Northern spotted owl recovery needs to be revised.

Judge Sullivan ruled that the 2008 plan from FWS under the Bush administration was not founded on science but instead was padded with false reports to distract from the real threats to species survival. Because of that plan, 1.6 million acres of land already preserved for the spotted owl is no longer available.

While revisions take place, the 2008 plan remains in effect. FWS has ninety days to resubmit the spotted owl recovery plan.

Native to Oregon, Washington, California and British Columbia, the Northern spotted owl has suffered habitat loss due to heavy logging in the old-growth forests that they call home. Logging activities became restricted with the ESA listing. However, not everyone was happy to abide by the new laws. Speculation points to political pressure influencing the way Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald presented the 2008 plan.

Meanwhile, loggers allege that the Northern spotted owl is threatened by forest fire and predation by barred owls, but not by logging activity. It is shameful that an industry built around tearing down old-growth trees would deny any responsibility for the decline in animal populations. If fire is a factor since it reduces the quantity of available trees for nesting, how is it possible that logging doesn’t contribute as well?

Barred owls are admittedly a problem species in the Pacific Northwest. Native to the East Coast, the larger and more aggressive owls compete with spotted owls for territory and may go as far as killing Northern spotted owls. Yet when up to 60 percent of available habitat for Northern spotted owls, who require the dense cover provided by continuous tracts of old-growth forests, is cleared away in large sections how do the Northern spotted owls stand a chance at recovery?

I understand that logging is an important industry to the Pacific Northwest. But after twenty years of ESA protection it would seem to me that Northern spotted owl recovery efforts should be a lot farther than they are now. The ability to compromise has been lost on the loggers, who favor bullheaded stubbornness and finger pointing over making any sort of progress at all. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another twenty years to figure it out.

No single factor is responsible for the loss of Northern spotted owl numbers. The drastic measures taken by both loggers (you may have heard of the slogan “save a logger, eat an owl”) and conservationists (camping out in trees to prevent them from being cut down) are combative and self-serving. Unfortunately, the real loser in this whole process is the Northern spotted owl, whose numbers continue to decline.

Photo credit: ilya_ktsn