Science Findings, Issue 125, July 2010. An Evolving Process: Protecting Spotted Owl Habitat Through Landscape Management

摘要

A network of late-successional forest reserves is central to the Northwest Forest Plan, the guiding vision for managing federal forests in Washington, Oregon, and northern California within the range of the northern spotted owl. These reserves were created to maintain older forest structure as habitat for the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and other associated species. Since the plans adoption in 1994, however, scientific thinking has evolved to question the ecological suitability of reserves as the primary recovery strategy for the northern spotted owl in the fire-prone forests of eastern Washington and Oregon. After a century of fire suppression, forest conditions have emerged that have heightened the threat of insect outbreaks and larger, more intense wildfires than occurred historically. Research by John Lehmkuhl, Paul Hessburg, and colleagues describes how the northern spotted owl habitat is threatened under current conditions of dry forests east of the Cascades. They suggest the owl would be better served by replacing the reserve system on the east side with a whole-landscape- management approach designed to maintain and create habitats in dynamic landscapes, restore natural fire ecology, and maintain populations of species associated with older forests. The researchers are working with land managers and other scientists to address on-the-ground issues of managing for ecological objectives such as fuel reduction and spotted owl habitat.