California Spotted Owl Endangered Listing Petition Fails

WASHINGTON, DC, May 24, 2006 (ENS) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied a petition to list the California spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act. In responding to a second petition to list the species in three years, the agency says its survey of California's Sierra Nevada forests found most owl populations stable or increasing.

The San Bernardino population of spotted owls in Southern California does show a decline, said the Service, calling the decrease in owl numbers "statistically non-significant." In light of the health of all California spotted owl populations, the agency concluded that this decline does not warrant a listing of the California spotted owl.

The California spotted owl is one of three subspecies of spotted owls - Northern, California, and Mexican. Both of the other subspecies are listed as protected.

This is the Service's second review of the subspecies since the Bush administration took office, both triggered by petitions or lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign and other conservation organizations.

Noah Greenwald, a conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity's office in Portland, Oregon, says he is "disappointed" in the Service's finding and disagrees with the premises it is based on.

"This finding has to be perceived within the context of this administration's opposition to protecting endangered wildlife under the Endangered Species Act, he told ENS.

"This administration has protected fewer species under the Endangered Species Act than any other administration to date," said Greenwald. He cited data showing only 56 species under the Act since President George W. Bush took office in January 2001. During the Clinton administration 512 species were protected, while 234 species were protected under the administration of the present president's father, President George H.W. Bush.

The California spotted owl, Strix occidentalis occidentalis is one of three subspecies of spotted owls. It is intermediate in color between the darker northern spotted owl (S.o. caurina) and lighter Mexican spotted owl (S. o. lucida). (Photo courtesy USFWS)

"According to a team of scientists convened especially to review the status of the California spotted owl, catastrophic wildfire is the primary threat to spotted owls," said Steve Thompson, manager of the Fish and Wildlife Service's California/Nevada Operations Office.

"While the current evidence does not support listing the owl at this time, the fuels-reduction efforts begun by the U.S. Forest Service in the Sierra Nevada and Southern California will be essential to keeping the California spotted owl off the endangered species list in the future," Thompson said.

Forest fuels reduction activities such as logging and prescribed fires may have a short-term impact on owl populations, the Service concluded. But fuels reduction will have a long-term benefit to California spotted owls by reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires that pose a major threat to California spotted owl habitat.

"We support fuel reduction efforts," said Ryan Broddrick, director for the California Department of Fish and Game. "Our desire is to monitor the habitat for all species and insure the overall health of our forests, avoiding the impacts on wildlife from catastrophic wildfires."

Many conservationists object to the fuels reduction activities being carried out under the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Act, saying that large old growth trees that are fire resistant are being logged for profit, while smaller, brushy fuels nearer to communities are being left standing.

The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates the number of existing California spotted owl territories is close to 2,200, but Greenwald calls that "an overestimate" based on a cumulative total collected since the late 1980s. Not all owl territories are active in any given year, he says.

In February 2003, the Service found that listing of the California spotted owl was not warranted because the overall magnitude of threats did not rise to the level requiring protection under the Endangered Species Act.

In May 2004, the Center for Biological Diversity and the other petitioners filed a lawsuit challenging that finding. In September 2004, they submitted a new petition to list the California spotted owl.

Monica Bond, a conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, holds a California spotted owl. (Photo courtesy CBD)

In June 2005, the Service completed an initial review, known as a 90 day finding under the Endangered Species Act, that found that conditions have changed, which warranted a more extensive study. This announcement is the result of that study.

The study found that the California spotted owl still occurs throughout its historic range in California, extending along the west side of the Sierra Nevada from Shasta County south to Tehachapi Pass, and in all major mountains of southern California, including the San Bernardino, San Gabriel, Tehachapi, north and south Santa Lucia, Santa Ana, Liebre/Sawmill, San Diego, San Jacinto and Los Padres ranges.

In addition, the Service says a few sites have been found on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada and in the central Coast Ranges at least as far north as Monterey County. For regulatory purposes, the Pit River has been established as the boundary between the northern spotted owl and the California spotted owl

The Service says it assessed "the best scientific and commercial information available; reviewed comments and information received during two public-comment periods; and consulted with recognized spotted-owl experts and Federal and state resource agencies, including an interagency Science Team."

The assessment concludes that barred owls, which have had an adverse impact on northern spotted owls in Washington and Oregon, have not been detected in the mountains of Southern California and have moved into the Sierra Nevada at much slower rates than they did in other parts of western North America.

The Service says that the largest private landowner in the Sierra Nevada, Sierra Pacific Industries, conducts surveys for spotted owls before timber harvests, buffers nest centers from disturbances, and protects forest units with nesting spotted owls from harvest altogether.

According to documents the company submitted to California forestry officials, the company estimates that, as its forests mature, habitat with nest-site characteristics will more than double during the next 100 years.

Greenwald says the Center for Biological Diversity will try again to protect this subspecies of owl in the future. "I think that we'll be revisitng this decision again, if not soon, in 10 or so years," he said. "The threats are serious from logging and from the barred owl moving into the spotted owl's range."