Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

The List of Threatened and Endangered,Candidate, Sensitive, and Older ForestAssociated SpeciesBirdsThe list of species considered in the recovery plan for the northern spotted owlincludes 23 birds, 18 mammals, 23 amphibians, 28 fish, 58 molluscs, 59arthropods, and 152 plants. Of these species, five (bald eagle, gray wolf, grizzlybear, Sacramento River winter chinook salmon, McDonald's rock cress) arefederally listed as threatened or endangered, and the marbled murrelet andseveral fish stocks are proposed for federal listing. More recently, the northerngoshawk has been petitioned for listing throughout the western United States.More than 100 species are listed or designated as sensitive species or speciesof special concern in one or more of the three states and could become candidatesfor federal listing in the future. Of the above, approximately 200 speciesof birds, mammals, amphibians, and plants are associated with or closelyassociated with older (more than 80 years) forests (Ruggiero et al. 199 lb)."Closely associated" species are those whose abundance was statisticallysignificantly greater in one forest seral stage than another. Species "associatedwith" a forest class are those found to be numerically more abundant in oneseral stage than another, but differences were not statistically significant.Although many species were detected in older Douglas-fir forests in the study,the list includes only those species for which significant statistical or ecologicalcorrelations with older Douglas-fir forests were detected. Additional speciesoccur in older forests that were not detected by Ruggerio et al. (1991b). Thesespecies include the bald eagle, which uses older forests for nesting and communalroosting (Anthony et al. 1982), and the goshawk on the Olympic Peninsulain Washington (D. Hayes, Washington Department of Wildlife, Olympia,Washington, pers. comm.) and northwestern California (Hall 1984). The list ofspecies associated with older forests is useful in determining the number andvariety of species that might become candidates for listing as threatened orendangered if older forests are converted to short-rotation, even-aged forests.Twenty-three species of birds are included on the list for consideration in therecovery plan (Table D. 1). One species, the bald eagle, currently is listedfederally as threatened in Oregon and Washington and endangered in California.The marbled murrelet has been proposed for federal listing as threatenedin all three states, and there has been a petition for listing the goshawkthroughout the western United States. The pileated woodpecker and thewhite-headed woodpecker are management indicator species for the ForestService because of their strong association with older forests on the west andeast sides of the Cascade Mountains, respectively. The Vaux's swift, whiteheadedwoodpecker, and chestnut-backed chickadee are broadly endemic tothe Pacific Northwest, and 20 of the 23 species are associated with or stronglyassociated with older forests in one or more of the three states (Ruggiero et al.1991). The marbled murrelet is of particular concern to the Recovery Teambecause of its strong association with older forests for nesting and the recentproposal to list the species in Oregon, Washington, and California. Further, itsuse of older forests for nesting is unique: marbled murrelets use large mosscoveredlimbs for nest construction, and these structures are found only on the340