Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

Biological goals and implementation on nonfederal landThe low habitat quantity and poor habitat distribution requires that the entireprovince be identified as an area of special management emphasis. However,within the province there are areas which should receive focused attention tobe most effective in achieving province objectivies. Reestablishing populationconnectivity is the main recovery objective in this province. To achieve this,both owl clusters and dispersal habitat are recommended. In the future,nonfederal lands should be managed to provide clusters of supplemental pairareas to contribute to the objective. Such clusters should be:1) designed for a minimum of 15 future spotted owl pairs,2) spaced a maximum of 12 miles apart,3) dispersal habitat should be provided between clusters with dispersalareas as continuous as feasible.There are several reasons that make the objective difficult to achieve. Sincethere are few existing owl sites in this province, prohibition on take or negotiatingconservation in trade for relief from take prohibition within the province arenot feasible means of contributing to recovery. A few relatively small preservedareas exist in southwest Washington, such as the State Natural HeritageProgram lands, but these are not adequately sized to support clusters ofbreeding pairs, or located to serve well as dispersal habitat. Provision ofbreeding habitat independent of known owl sites cannot be required undercurrent state forest practices law.To establish breeding clusters in this province, land acquisition appears to bethe only effective strategy. This is because there are limited opportunities forfederal/nonfederal land exchanges in this province. But purchase of land andtimber sufficient to meet the objective would be prohibitively expensive (morethan $2 billion).To reduce this cost, purchase of bare land, or land with some timber harvestrights reserved to the seller, may be feasible (possibly reducing costs to $150million). This approach would delay achievement of the recovery objective byseveral decades because the forest would have to regrow into owl habitat.However, the continuing threat to the owl population on the Olympic Peninsula,necessitating reestablishment of connectivity, is anticipated over manydecades. Even at the lower cost, funding for this approach may be availableonly over a number of years, and would be considered along with acquisitionsto meet recovery objectives for other provinces in Washington.To answer the need for dispersal habitat, the only effective mechanism appearsto be a combination of incentives for landowners and forest practices regulations.New forest practices regulations would have to be developed, anddispersal habitat would have to be well defined. Achievement of the dispersalobjective probably is feasible, but would contribute to recovery only if appliedin combination with successful establishment of breeding clusters.The following recommendations are provided for recovery planning in thewestern Washington lowlands province:- Continue surveys of potential owl habitat.- Continue protection of remaining northern spotted owls. The owls shouldbe protected with supplemental pair areas. These areas should be at leastas large as the median home range size for pairs in the neighboring OlympicPeninsula province (size information from the Olympic Peninsula province isbeing used because studies have not been conducted in this province toprovide a size estimate). It is recommended that delineation and managementof these areas follow guidelines similar to those for reserved pair areasor managed pair areas on federal lands.151