Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

However, state regulatory protection of breeding habitat independent ofknown pairs likely would require legislative action to change the statute.Some state-protected habitat currently exists at Beacon Rock State Parkand the adjacent Natural Resource Conservation Area at Table Mountain.Land exchange or land purchase to bring additional land into publicownership for habitat protection appears necessary to meet the recoveryobjective to establish large areas of new breeding habitat. Some landacquisition is occurring in conjunction with establishment of the ColumbiaGorge National Scenic Area. However, this would be very expensive($10 million to $20 million per owl pair) and would be feasible only withsubstantial federal funding.The Mineral Block. This area is of particular importance for contributionsfrom nonfederal lands. As currently mapped, the DCA on the MineralBlock (WD- 10) has a future capability of supporting 14 pairs of spottedowls, including checkerboard nonfederal lands (Appendix J, Table J.3.).There are presently five known territories on all lands in the DCA. Contributions,in the form of supplemental pair areas, on nonfederal land insideof, and directly adjacent to, WD-10 are recommended to increase thecapability of the DCA so that it will support a minimum of 15 pairs ofspotted owls. It is also recommended that dispersal habitat be providedon nonfederal land between DCA WD- 10 and DCAs W-2N and W-3.Within WD- 10, prohibitions on take currently are contributing to theprovince objective of supplementing the DCA. Approximately 10 knownowl activity centers occur in and near this DCA. Protective management,as described in section III.C.3., could improve achievement of recoveryobjectives. State forest practices rules also could be used to ensureprotection of known owls, where agreed upon. However, if most or allknown owl pairs are needed to meet the DCA objective, opportunities willbe limited to use protective management to achieve other nonfederalcontributions. This also will reduce opportunities to gain contributions ofdispersal habitat among WD- 10 and WD-2N and WD-3. hese contributionsare extremely important to the development of stable owl subpopulationsin the province.Siouxon Creek (northwest of WD- 1). The recommendation is to provide asmall group of spotted owls (three to four pairs) in conjunction withfederal ownership as either a small cluster or as supplemental pair areas.This area is important to maintain distribution within the province andprovides a potential link in establishing a second connection betweenspotted owls in Washington and Oregon across the Columbia River.Prohibition on take will help accomplish this objective. Opportunities tonegotiate more efficient contributions are limited since there are only afew known owl sites in this area and all are needed to accomplish theobjective of providing a cluster. Some voluntary action on state-ownedlands is possible but is not likely to achieve the recovery objective givencurrent management requirements for these lands. Land acquisitionthrough purchase or exchange is possible but would require up to $100million. Less-than-fee acquisitions may have the potential to contributeto the recovery objective in this area. Achievement of the objective in thenear term is feasible to a degree.157