Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

3. Integration of Strategic and Biological PrinciplesThe northern spotted owl has been placed at risk by management actions thathave seriously depleted its habitat. The habitat conditions that would be bestfor support of an owl population would be similar to those that existed beforetimber harvesting began. However, recreating such habitat conditions wouldnot be feasible. Efforts to restore habitat conditions in any part of the rangewould have large economic effects, and those economic consequences forcedifficult biological choices in the design of a recovery strategy. The strategydeveloped here places large blocks of habitat on federal land off-limits toregular timber harvesting and should provide a reasonable assurance ofsuccess of recovering the northern spotted owl. However, it required considerationof many compromises in conservation area size and spacing and thestructure of intervening forests. Such compromises are inevitable in a strategythat calls for blocks of superior habitat distributed within a landscape of lowerquality habitat. The situation for owls could be made more secure if favorablehabitat conditions could be spread more evenly across the landscape. Such asolution might be possible if it can be demonstrated that silvicultural techniquescan create and maintain suitable habitat conditions while harvestingtimber. The Recovery Team supports the change over time toward such asolution when supported by appropriate data.103