Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

* Emphasis should be placed on management for clusters, orlocal population centers, of owls habitat blocks, rather than forindividual pairs.* Habitat conditions and spacing among local populationsshould provide free movement of owls to allow ametapopulation structure to operate.For the owl, these principles result in recommendations for a) a network ofdesignated conservation areas (DCAs) sufficiently large when possible tosupport 20 pairs of owls each, b) management within DCAs to maintain orincrease suitable habitat for owls, and c) management to allow owls to moveamong DCAs. The size and arrangement of DCAs are based on informationabout the size of territories established by pairs of owls and the ability of owlsto disperse. Knowledge of habitat characteristics needed to support owlsprovided a basis for recommending management of forestlands to supportrecovery. Throughout the plan, recommendations are tailored to locallyspecific information. Organization of recovery around multipair habitat areasis particularly appropriate for this species because of knowledge of its behavior,which includes significant inter-pair interaction.In addition to owl conservation, the recovery plan considers the biology andconservation needs of other species that occur within the range of the owl. Therecovery plan incorporates elements to benefit other species and generalecosystem values when doing so adds little or no additional cost while conservingthe owl.D. The Means of Achieving RecoveryE. Sources of InformationThe recovery plan recommends an approach to owl recovery that involvesfederal, state, and private sectors. The underlying strategy is interactive, andaccordingly, recommends management objectives and practices consistent withthe various implementation mechanisms available among these sectors. TheRecovery Team believes this approach is the most efficient and effective meansto achieve recovery. At the same time, however, the Recovery Team understandsthat the statutory mandates of the recovery planning process and theEndangered Species Act impose different requirements on land managers andowners. Accordingly, the recommendations place strong emphasis on the needfor appropriate federal land management as a basis for recovery. As the plan isimplemented, achieving or exceeding recommended state and private commitmentsin some physiographic provinces may hasten recovery, and perhapsultimately enable greater flexibility in federal management than the plan nowenvisions. In other provinces, however, particularly where obstacles to recoveryare acute, flexibility is not likely to be possible in the immediate future.Both published and unpublished documents (unpublished documents arecommonly referred to as "grey literature") have been used as references in thisplan. Grey literature has not been subjected to formal, rigorous peer review,and thus its acceptability among scientists as a source of information fromwhich inference can be drawn is low. Likewise, published documents vary intheir utility as sources of information. In general, popular articles (e.g., thosein newspapers and magazines) have the lowest value as sources of unbiasedinformation. With one exception, none is cited in this review. Privately pub-7