Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl - DRAFT

3. National Park ServiceThe following areas managed by the National Park Service (NPS) are known tocontain northern spotted owls: North Cascades, Mount Rainier, and OlympicNational Parks in Washington; Crater Lake National Park and Oregon CavesNational Monument in Oregon; and Redwood National Park, Point ReyesNational Seashore, and Muir Woods National Monument in California.Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in California also may be occupied bynorthern spotted owls. These areas provide up to 570,000 acres of suitablehabitat, although none has been surveyed for owls. The NPS currently has nocoordinated inventory and monitoring program for spotted owls.Management BackgroundManagement of areas of the NPS is generally compatible with that required forrecovery of the northern spotted owl. In fact, Barry (1990) suggested that fewenvironmental laws are more consistent with NPS objectives than the EndangeredSpecies Act. The primary purpose of the act is to preserve for futuregenerations endangered and threatened species and the ecosystems uponwhich they depend, while the goal of the NPS is to "conserve the scenery andthe natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for theenjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave themunimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations," (NPS Organic Act).The policy of the NPS is to manage natural resources "with a concern forfundamental ecological processes, as well as for individual species," (NPSManagement Policies 1988:4: 1) as well as 'identify and promote conservationof all federally listed threatened, endangered, or candidate species within parkboundaries and their critical habitats." Active management programs will beconducted as necessary to perpetuate the natural distribution and abundanceof threatened or endangered species and the ecosystems on which they depend(NPS Management Policies 1988:4:11).Management actions will be in accordance with, and follow recovery prioritiesidentified in approved recovery plans (NPS 1991:273). Habitat manipulation,species restoration, or population augmentation are "encouraged if identifiedas appropriate in the recovery plan and if such activities would result in a morerepresentative distribution of the species within the park," (NPS 1991:274).Such management activities must "consider potential impacts on other nativespecies" and "significant modification of habitat and landform is discouragedunless necessary to prevent extirpation or extinction of the species" (NPS1991:274). All management actions for endangered or threatened species willbe described and assigned priorities in the park's approved resources managementplan.Applicable lawThe general authority under which the NPS operates is the NPS Organic Act(16 USC 1), which authorizes the NPS to "regulate the use of the federal areasknown as national parks." See the statement of purpose of this act earlier inthis section.Each park also has its own enabling act. Congress has stated in the enablinglegislation of most units that they have their own particular purposes andobjectives. These may be broad or very specific. For example, Crater Lake wasestablished in 1902 "as a public park or pleasure ground for the benefit of the74