Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

Table 2.6. Estimated acres of spotted owl habitat on BLM lands in Oregon,California, and Washington.State Nesting Roosting Total Totaland Habitat and Habitat ForestDistrict Foraging (Acres) (Acres)OregonSalem 53,300 120,335 173,665 372,799Eugene 64,381 55,983 20,364 302,125Roseburg 117,456 94,724 212,180 395,327Coos Bay 99,912 23,284 123,196 308,888Medford 168,715 233,352 402,067 835,189CaliforniaUkiah 25,000 a 25,000 184,640WashingtonSpokaneb 600 1,500 2,100 3,000aNot yet surveyedbHedges (pers comm.)2. Bureau of Land ManagementWithin the geographic range of the northern spotted owl, the Bureau of LandManagement (BLM) administers 2.4 million acres in Oregon, Washington, andCalifornia. These lands include public as well as railroad grant lands thatreverted to federal ownership pursuant to the Oregon and California SustainedYield Act (O&C Act). The reverted grant lands comprise alternate sections in acheckerboard arrangement in the Medford, Eugene, Coos Bay, Salem, andRoseburg districts in western Oregon. The BLM Oregon office manages thegreatest amount of owl habitat, followed by the California and Washingtonoffices, respectively (Table 2.6).Management BackgroundThe first BLM northern spotted owl habitat management initiative consisted of79 areas identified for management as spotted owl habitat in an agreementwith the State of Oregon as components of the individual district office timbermanagement plans completed in 1983. Each agreement site comprised 300acres of contiguous old-growth or the next older forest surrounded by anadditional 900 acres managed to maintain at least 50 percent in stands olderthan 30 years. The approach to protection and management of the sites variedby district, but generally harvest from commercial forestland within agreementsites was prohibited and other resource management allocations within sitescarried harvest prohibitions as well. Later, in 1983, the BLM and OregonDepartment of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) agreed to establish 1 1 additionalareas for spotted owl protection. The agreement was to remain in effect for 5years, but was revised in 1987 to extend the expiration date until the planningprocess for the 1990s is completed in 1992, and to add 20 more agreementsites. This action constrained timber harvest on 230,400 acres around 1 10owl locations throughout the five western Oregon BLM districts. The goal wasto maintain a well-distributed population of 90 pairs of owls on land administeredby the BLM. The actual number of sites was reduced to 109 with the69