A great opportunity to make a difference for animals

Tell U.S. Fish and Wildlife to protect precious habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl!

After years of debate on saving the spotted owl, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently issued a draft proposal which may seal the fate of one of Northwest's magnificent and elusive species.

The Northern Spotted Owl prefers to inhabit large tracts of old growth forests from British Columbia through the Cascade Mountains, and the coastal ranges of Washington, Oregon and California. The U.S. population of this owl species was first listed under the federal Endangered Species Act as threatened in 1990. Seventeen years later, the spotted owl is still in decline throughout the Pacific Northwest. The situation is so dire in certain regions, a team of Pacific Northwest scientists recently made recommendations to capture many or all of the remaining spotted owls in British Columbia so they may be bred in zoos to prevent their extinction.

In 2006, a Northwest-based team drafted a recovery plan to save the U.S. Northern Spotted Owl—using much of the landmark 1994 Northwest Forest Plan—that would protect large interconnected swaths of old growth forest to support our remaining fragile populations of spotted owls. Coincidentally, this recovery plan would also result in a reduction of acreage available for timber harvest. Unfortunately, the recovery plan faced pressure from a "Washington Oversight Committee" to produce a second, more "flexible" option.

In 2007, a second option was added to a revised recovery plan. This option would leave it up to locally based federal land-use managers to decide which land to designate for the spotted owl, based on a set of guidelines. Widely criticized for its lack of scientific rigor, this second option could result in less protected forest for the spotted owl. Also, instead of focusing on habitat protection, the revised plan declares the spotted owl's greatest threat to date is the Barred Owl and recommends implementing pilot projects to lure Barred Owls into confined areas with decoys and shoot them.

Of the two options offered in the plan to recover spotted owls over the next 30 years, only one will be put into action. PAWS is concerned that concentrating efforts to kill another species, rather than protecting precious spotted owl habitat, is not a systemic solution. The imbalance created in the spotted owl's habitat through continual logging and forest fragmentation is the real problem. Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that loosening protection on precious spotted owl habitat is an unacceptable forest management solution.

1. Attend a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service meeting on May 31, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in Lacey, Washington, to voice your concerns in person. If you plan to make a public statement at the meeting, also bring a copy of your comments for submission and make sure you sign in to get priority attention. There will be an opportunity to talk directly with forest service agents at the end of the meeting.
   
   Meeting location:
   Saint Martin's University
   Norman Worthington Conference Center
   5300 Pacific Ave. S.E.
   Lacey, Washington 98503
   
   Other meetings are scheduled in Oregon and California and are also listed in this U.S. Fish and Wildlife's press release.



2. Contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by June 25 and tell them your opinion of their revised second option by:
   E-mail: NSOplan@fws.gov
   Or by mail:
   NSO Recovery Plan
   U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services
   911 NE 11th Avenue
   Portland, OR 97232

We'd like to hear from you! Tell PAWS what you did to voice your opinion about the spotted owl recovery plan. Did you write a letter or attend the meeting in Lacey? What kind of response did you get from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? Good or bad, we'd love to hear about it. E-mail us at info@paws.org with "Actionline- spotted owl" in the subject line, and tell us about your experience.

You can review the 2007 draft recovery plan, supporting documents and the press release explaining the plan's options on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Northern Spotted Owl page. Hard copies and CDs of the draft recovery plan are available by request at 503-231-2194.

Changes in plan to protect owl raise concerns about NW forests, Seattle Times
Spotted owl plan in jeopardy, Seattle PI

Thank you for speaking out for the animals!