Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

I.A. The Northern Spotted Owl and theEndangered Species Act1. How the Owl Came To Be Protected Under the ActThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) first considered the possibility oflisting the northern spotted owl (also refered to in the recovery plan as thespotted owl and the owl) under the Endangered Species Act in the early 1980s,but concluded that it would have been inappropriate. In 1987, a small organizationknown as GreenWorld, later joined by other environmental groups,petitioned the FWS to list the owl as endangered. The act's petition provisionsrequired a preliminary finding within 90 days as to whether listing might bewarranted. The FWS made a positive finding and initiated a review of the owl'sstatus.A second finding was required within 12 months of receipt of the petition. Tilesecond finding, directed at the question of whether listing was warranted, wasmore definitive than the 90-day finding. On December 17, 1987, the FWSfound listing was not warranted.The legality of the negative finding was challenged in court by several environmentalgroups, and the federal District Court in Seattle ruled that the findingappeared not to be supported by the status review that the FWS had conducted(see General Accounting Office 1989 for a review). When a judgeordered the FWS to produce a record that supported its decision, the FWSrequested and was granted time to reconsider its finding in light of the mostrecently available information. In April 1989, the FWS made a finding thatlisting was warranted. A proposal to list the owl as a threatened species waspublished in June 1989, and the owl was listed effective July 23, 1990.2. The Endangered Species Listing ProcessA process for ascertaining which species need attention is basic to any programof species conservation. Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act assigns thistask to the Secretaries of the Interior and of Commerce, and operationalauthority within the two departments is delegated to the FWS and the NationalMarine Fisheries Service. The responsibilities and authorities for listing underthe act are framed very broadly as the determination ". . . whether any speciesis an endangered species or a threatened species .... Determinations aremade by regulation through a proposal-and-comment process. In addition tothis broad charge to the federal agencies to assess the status of species, the actprovides a process for the public to petition for a species to be listed, and itmakes the agencies accountable to petitioners. Some definitions are useful inunderstanding this assessment phase."Species" means any species or subspecies of plant or animal and,in the case of vertebrate life forms, may include any distinct populationsegment."Endangered species" means a species in danger of extinctionthroughout all or a significant portion of its range.3