Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

A total of 1,181 pairs of owls has been located on federal lands in these DCAswithin the last 5 years. This represents 48 percent of the 2,460 pairs of owlslocated on all federal lands during that period. The percent of owls included inDCAs by state is 81 percent in Washington, 39 percent in Oregon, and 54percent in California. Differing percentages among the states result from thedifferences in current population levels and distribution of owls. The DCAscontain approximately 7.5 million acres of federal land including approximately3.5 million acres of nesting, roosting, and foraging (NRF) habitat. This representsabout 48 percent of all NRF habitat on federal land. The percent ofhabitat included in DCAs by state is 55 percent in Washington, 44 percent inOregon, and 43 percent in California. A summary of the DCA network ispresented in Figures 3.1 and 3.6. The DCA network is illustrated on the mapsincluded with the recovery plan, and it is discussed further in section III.C.4.Additional pairs of owls on federal lands will be protected by matrix managementprescriptions. See sections III.C.2. and III.C.4.Management of DCAsEffective management of the DCAs is necessary to achieve recovery. Thissection describes the management guidelines that will govern activities onfederal lands in DCAs. These guidelines apply to the owl's entire range. Theymust be refined and use province-specific information before they can beapplied to projects. It is recommended that interagency groups be establishedto develop this province-specific guidance. Implementation of the guidelineswill be accomplished by preparing management plans for individual DCAs.The recommended components for DCA management plans are describedbriefly in this section and in more detail in Appendix E.The DCA management guidelines have several key objectives. First, they allownatural successional processes to continue operating in areas of currentlysuitable habitat. They focus silvicultural activities within DCAs on developingsuitable habitat conditions for owls where those conditions now do not exist.Another objective is to maintain or reestablish suitable conditions in areasbeing considered for salvage operations. Finally, maintaining currently suitablehabitat conditions is an important consideration in areas where there issignificant threat of large-scale disturbances (i.e., mixed conifer forests in theeastern Cascades). Some forest management activities which meet theseobjectives also may yield commercial wood products, but such products shouldnot be part of the programmed timber harvest. In addition, the DCA managementplanning process will allow other ongoing activities to continue withinDCAs where they are compatible with owl recovery.The recovery plan recommends the preparation and approval of a managementplan for each DCA before design and implementation of habitat manipulationactivities. Land management agencies may choose to develop these plans ascomponents of legally mandated plans (e.g., forest or resource managementplans), or as stand-alone plans. Agencies are strongly encouraged to developprovince-based planning guidelines as a basis for preparing plans. DCAmanagement plans will serve as overview documents that provide a frameworkfor carrying out specific activities. Individual plans should include: 1) ahistory and inventory of overall owl and habitat condition; 2) a description ofother resources and land uses; and 3) criteria for determining appropriatetreatments for specific owl needs and on-the-ground conditions within theDCA, consistent with the recommendations in this section and other applicableguidance. Individual DCA plans should contain oversight, monitoring, andevaluation components to help assure that activities are carried out as intendedand achieve desired results. Interdisciplinary teams that includewildlife biologists, silviculturists, forest ecologists, fire scientists, forest ento-108