Plan - Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Information Portal

Northern Spotted Owl Recovery

information portal

Recovery Plan

Current Legal Status

Background

The northern spotted owl (spotted owl) was listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened on June 26, 1990, because of the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms to conserve the spotted owl and "due to loss and adverse modification of suitable habitat as a result of timber harvesting and exacerbated by catastrophic events such as fire, volcanic eruption, and wind storms."

Section 4(f) of the ESA directs the Secretary of the Interior to develop and implement Recovery Plans for listed species which include site-specific management actions necessary for conservation and survival of the species, objective, measurable criteria that, when met, will allow the species to be delisted, and estimates of the time and funding required to achieve the plan's goals.

In December 1992, a Department of Interior Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Team completed the Final Draft Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl which recommended establishing a network of 192 Designated Conservation Areas across the range of the species to ensure a viable, well-distributed population of spotted owls. This draft plan was never signed given the 1994 completion of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP).

In 2008 the Service issued a Recovery Plan for the spotted owl that was subsequently reviewed by three scientific societies. These scientific peer reviews were consistent in their comments, noting that the recovery plan provided a "solid conceptual framework for recovery." However, the comments were critical of several key aspects of the 2008 Recovery Plan, particularly addressing threats posed by habitat loss from fire and concerns regarding the adequacy of reserves and their management. Following a subsequent court challenge and critical Inspector General's report, the Service filed for a voluntary remand of the Recovery Plan so that it could be revised to incorporate the most recent science, including the most up-to-date modeling techniques.

The Service issued a draft Revised Recovery Plan in September of 2010, for public review and comment and released the final Revised Recovery Plan on June 30, 2011. This Revised Recovery Plan recommends achieving recovery of the spotted owl through 1) the retention of more occupied and high-quality habitat, 2) active management using ecological forestry techniques, both inside and outside of reserves, 3) increased conservation of spotted owls on State and private lands, and 4) the removal of barred owls in areas with spotted owls. This Revised Recovery Plan recommends retaining the NWFP reserve network while the Service utilizes a habitat modeling framework (described in Appendix C) to develop and propose a new critical habitat network for the spotted owl.