Scientific societies call for review of proposed logging of Critical Habitat for Northern Spotted Owl
Several international scientific societies joined together on April 2 in asking the Department of the Interior (DOI) to reconsider its proposal for expansion of commercial timber harvesting in critical habitat for threatened Northern Spotted Owls in the Pacific Northwest. In a letter to DOI Secretary Ken Salazar, the Society for Conservation Biology, The Wildlife Society, and the American Ornithologists’ Union called for a full environmental impact statement (EIS) and peer-reviewed scientific assessment on the potential impacts of a DOI proposal that would allow substantial commercial timber harvesting in the critical habitat of threatened northern spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest. The societies are recommending that the EIS identify a range of experimental forestry techniques, appropriate scientific methodologies to assess those techniques, and a scientific process for evaluating impacts on northern spotted owls.
“I am disheartened that we are revisiting this hard-fought protection for northern spotted owls. The spotted owl continues to need protection,” Paul Beier, president of the Society for Conservation Biology, said. “Any activity that can have significant long-term consequences for the owl must be fully vetted by the peer review process. An environmental impact statement is the best vehicle for accomplishing this task,” he said.
Scientists note that critical habitat provides the ecological conditions that are essential for the survival and recovery of threatened and endangered species. Accordingly, the ESA requires all federal agencies, including the DOI, to avoid activities that will destroy or adversely modify critical habitat. While the designation of critical habitat does not eliminate the flexibility that the DOI has with respect to managing northern spotted owl habitat, it does require the agency not to embark on a management scheme based on untested forestry management activities which could have significant, unforeseen, and long-term negative implications for the spotted owl.
“In 2011, Secretary Salazar was the first Secretary to approve a Scientific Integrity Policy, in part to re-establish the proper role of science in decision making regarding endangered species,” said Paul R. Krausman, President of The Wildlife Society. “While there may be legitimate disagreements regarding the best approach to recovering the northern spotted owl, peer review and a full environmental impact statement ensures that science will guide this work and keep mistakes to a minimum as we work toward the recovery of the owl,” he said.
There appears to be little scientific knowledge regarding the effects on the northern spotted owl of these proposed active forestry management techniques. Northern spotted owls primarily live in closed canopy, old-growth forests. The primary cause for their decline and subsequent protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was due to unsustainable timber harvesting in the Pacific Northwest. While the DOI has asserted that these new active management activities will benefit the northern spotted owl over the long-term, scientists counter that this appears to be an untested and unverified management theory
According to John R. Faaborg, President of the American Ornithologists’ Union, “The USFWS has proved thoughtful in its approach to the barred owl question by planning carefully designed experiments to determine if the reduction of competition by this encroaching species will benefit the northern spotted owl. The AOU encourages the Service to take the same thoughtful approach to the issue of forest management and timber removal by approaching it first on an experimental basis.”
The full letter is here.
