Spotted Owl Population Declines Sharply

Q U I N E S   C R E E K, Ore., July 10 -- Endangered salmon may have pushed thespotted owl off the front page, but the birds are continuing todisappear from Northwest forests.

In five years, the owl population’s rate of decline has slowedfrom 4.5 percent a year to 3.9 percent a year. In some areas, suchas the forests near Glendale, the spotted owl population may bestable; in others, like Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula, thepopulation is plummeting.

Still, the owl population is falling more quickly than the 1percent annual decline predicted in the Northwest Forest Plan, analarming development to forest activists.

The Quines Creek nest is in LSR 223, a 63,259-acre parcel offederal land set aside in 1994 to prevent extinction of the spottedowl, which most wildlife biologists agree needs old-growth foreststo thrive.

Long-Term Progress

In 7.4 million acres of federal land set aside in California,Oregon and Washington logging is prohibited in stands older than 80years and allowed in younger stands only if the post-logging forestwill be better habitat for the owl.

“We don’t expect to see the types of changes habitatwise withthis plan for 30, 50 and upwards of 80 years,” says Joe Lint, aBLM biologist based in Roseburg. “We’re hoping that in 80 years,100 years, 120 years, some of these stands are going to come onlineas habitat. As the habitat comes online, we’re confident the owlswill use it. In the meantime, we’re monitoring what’s happening.We’re looking for progress.”

Progress comes in tiny increments in a 100-year plan, but theslowing rate of decline gave federal biologists some good news toreport. And more important, female birds are surviving andreproducing at a stable rate across the region.

“It gives me hope that the plan is working and will work. Tome, that’s the biggest take-home from the data we’re collecting,”says Eric Forsman, a Corvallis-based U.S. Forest Service biologist.“But there is a chance that even though the rates are stable,they’re too low to maintain a viable population. To me, that’s thebiggest area of uncertainty.”