Northern Spotted Owl

In 1997, the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was conceived by the USDA Forest Service under the Clinton Administration as a “vision for a sustainable future for federal natural resources (lands managed by the USDA Forest Service and the USDI Bureau of Land Mangement) and for local timber dependent communities within the range of the Northern Spotted Owl.”

The Bush Administration persisted in efforts to dismantle the NWFP through a wide variety of strategies. One of those strategies was to attack the environmental protections legally afforded the Northern Spotted Owl. The “Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan,” a report prepared by high-level Bush appointees (including a former timber-industry lobbyist) which disregards the opinions of scientists and other forest habitat experts, was implemented in May 2008, but subsequently withdrawn amid considerable controversy. More than 700,000 acres of habitat suitable for the threatened owls would have been left unprotected if the plan would have gone into effect. The withdrawn “Recovery Plan” threatened to do away with the network of old-growth forest reserves, the backbone of an effective conservation strategy for the owl and many other species that depend on old-growth forests.

A new recovery plan is in the works which includes the removal of Barred Owls from Northern Spotted Owl habitat. Barred Owls have been encroaching on Spotted Owl habitat since the 1950s, threatening spotted owl populations. As a new recovery plan is formulated, the Northern Spotted Owl’s future remains unclear and much work needs to be done by EPIC and others to ensure its continued existence.