Plan says northern spotted owl can recover in 30 years

PORTLAND — A $489 million Bush administration final recovery plan for the northern spotted owl says that logging, wildfires and an owl cousin remain a threat, but the bird's population can be restored within 30 years.

The plan released Friday outlines a series of 34 steps to halt the owl's decline, reduce threats and return to a stable owl population in Washington, Oregon and California.

"This plan aggressively addresses each of the key threats with sound and, in some cases, pioneering recommendations," said Ren Lohoefener, Pacific regional director for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

But it was met with immediate criticism by conservation groups, who called it flawed and said it fails to restrict old-growth logging enough to ensure recovery.

"Science supports stronger habitat protection, not weakening the protective measures already in place under the Northwest Forest Plan," said Steve Holmer, spokesman for the American Bird Conservancy in Washington.

He asked Congress to order another round of scientific peer review.

A draft recovery plan had been roundly criticized for failing to consider all the best available science.

Holmer said the draft plan failed four independent science reviews because it severely downplayed the importance of protecting old-growth habitat. The reviews were conducted by the Sustainable Ecosystems Institute, the Society for Conservation Biology, the American Ornithologists' Union and The Wildlife Society.

"The Fish & Wildlife Service once again has ignored scientists, even its own federal working group, who called for an outright ban on logging of remaining mature and old-growth forest," said Dominick DellaSala, director of the National Center for Conservation Biology and Policy in Ashland, Ore., and a member of the team that produced the draft recovery plan.

The northern spotted owl was listed as a threatened species in 1990 under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The final plan calls for setting aside a network of 133 owl-conservation areas totaling nearly 6.4 million acres of federal land west of the Cascade Range in Washington, Oregon and California.

On the arid east side, the plan calls for shifting areas of habitat to compensate for inevitable fire or insect damage to forests.

The recovery plan emphasized control of the conflict between the spotted owl and a related species, the barred owl, which has been taking over spotted-owl habitat.

The Forest Service noted that barred owls are native to eastern North America but moved west in the last century. They are aggressively territorial, have a diverse diet and can tolerate different habitat conditions to outcompete northern spotted owls.

Tom Partin, president of the timber-industry group America Forest Resource Council, said the new plan ignores solid research from the draft plan despite the fact that it "finally acknowledges the immense threat" posed by competition from the barred owl.

He said the plan of 6.4 million acres for owl-conservation areas call for "high-quality habitat" to be maintained on all lands outside of the areas without determining whether northern spotted owls are actually using it for habitat.

"Instead, they have again opted to draw arbitrary reserve lines on maps and walk away from addressing the habitat and prey needs of the owl," Partin said in a statement.

"It didn't work in the last decade, and it won't work in the next," he said.