Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

the landscape and home ranges contained some stands under even-agedmanagement. Roosting sites were visually located; sites with more than 5nighttime telemetry locations were considered intensively used foraging sites.Twenty-seven roost sites and 200 foraging sites were characterized. Vegetationwas sampled within a circular 0.1-acre plot centered on the roost tree orforaging location.Solis (1983) and Solis and Gutifrrez (1990) characterized roosting and foragingsites of 10 radio-transmittered owls during the breeding seasons (February toSeptember) of 1980 and 1981 on the Six Rivers National Forest (HumboldtCounty, California) in the Klamath province. Six of the owls were also studiedby Sisco (1990). Fifty visually-located roost sites and 398 foraging sites werecharacterized. The habitat and sampling methods were identical to those ofSisco (1990).Zabel et al. (1991) studied habitat use by spotted owls during the breeding andnonbreeding seasons in the Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests. Standtypes were defined by dominant vegetation (conifers, hardwoods,nonvegetated), mean dbh, elevation, aspect, position (lower, middle, or upperthird), and slope.Oregon and WashingtonAllen et al. (1989) described stands used by 18 radio-transmittered owls innine spotted owl management areas on the Gifford-Pinchot, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, and Olympic National Forests. Douglas-fir, western hemlock, andPacific silver fir were the major overstory trees. Vegetation was sampled at 436intensively-used sites (i.e., sites with clusters of locations). At each site, 25measurements were recorded using the point-center-quarter method. Most ofthe sites were in small stands of old-growth.Benson (199 lb) described stands used by six radio-transmittered owls inmixed conifer forests on the Wenatchee National Forest (Cle Elum RangerDistrict). Intensively used stands (those with three or more telemetry locations)within 0.5 miles of the nest were sampled with three to nine plots distributeduniformly in the stand. Each plot contained a variable-radius plot, a 0.20-acrecircular plot, a 0.5-acre rectangular plot, and a line transect.Buchanan (1991) characterized 62 nest sites and surrounding nest standsthroughout the eastern Washington Cascades. Most of the nests were on theWenatchee and Okanogan National Forests; a few were on private land. Theforests were dominated by Douglas-fir and grand fir, with some ponderosapine, western larch, western red cedar, and western hemlock, and with littlehardwood understory. Median nest stand age was 130 years. Most young andmature stands contained remnant old-growth trees. Young had fledged atmost of the nests within the previous four years, and only four nests had norecord of successful nesting. Nest sites were described using a single 0.25-acreplot, and 4 0.1 -acre plots, located within 110 feet of the nest tree. Nest standswere described using a single plot randomly placed within 1,300 feet of thenest tree.Carey et al. (1991) conducted surveys for spotted owls (and other species) in 8young stands (40-72 years), 10 mature stands (80-120 years), and 29 oldgrowthstands (200-525 years) in the southern Oregon Coast Range province.Surveys were conducted during April, May, or June in 1985 and 1986. Thestands were visited approximately 7 times in each year. Average stand sizewas about 70 acres.293