Designated Critical Habitat for the Mexican Spotted Owl |
| The Mexican spotted
owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) (owl) inhabits canyon and montane forest
habitats across a range that extends from southern Utah and Colorado, through Arizona, New
Mexico, and west Texas, to the mountains of central Mexico. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listed the owl on March 16,
1993 (58 FR 14248) without critical habitat. A final rule designating critical habitat for
the owl was published on June 6, 1995 (60 FR 29914). As a result of several court
rulings, the Service removed critical habitat designation for the owl on March 25, 1998
(63 FR 14378). On March 13, 2000, the Service was again ordered to propose critical
habitat within 4 months of the court order and to complete a final designation by January
15, 2001. Thus, the Service has now designated approximately 4.6 million acres of
critical habitat for the owl in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, on Federal Lands. |
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Critical habitat refers to specific geographic areas that are essential
for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and that may require special
management considerations. A critical habitat designation does not set up a preserve or
refuge and only applies to situations where Federal funding, authorization or permits are
involved. Since no private, state or tribal lands are being designated, the designation
will only affect activities on Federal lands.
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Additionally, not all the areas within the mapped boundaries
have habitat elements important to the owl. The Service will require consultations only on
the activities that affect those areas that contain the primary constituent elements
(physical and biological features necessary for the species’ survival). Private
inholdings may appear in the mapped areas but are not included in the designation.
The primary constituent elements identified in the rule were based on information within
the Mexican
Spotted Owl Recovery Plan.
A full Press
Release is available.
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| On Nov 18th, 2003, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed Critical Habitat again, by reopening the comment period on the July 21, 2000 proposed Critical Habitat rule. As such, state-wide and unit-specific critical habitat maps have been provided on this site for public review. |
PROPOSED CRITICAL HABITAT UNIT MAPS REOPENED FOR COMMENT |
State-wide maps are available for Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
WARNING: The files are large (nearly 1 Mb each), will take some time to download and are best viewed with imaging software, not web browsers.
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Unit-specific maps are available for Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
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March 29th, 2004:New documents related to the Critical Habitat Designation are available: The Proposed Rule reopening the comment period, The Draft Economic Analysis and The Draft Environmental Assessment |
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| The final designation remains in place however, and the bulk of the materials below refer to the standing final designation. |
OVERVIEW MAP |
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CRITICAL HABITAT ACREAGE BY LAND OWNERSHIP AND STATE |
Agency |
Arizona |
New
Mexico |
Colorado |
Utah |
Total |
Forest Service |
0 |
0 |
375,837 |
274,616 |
650,453 |
Bureau of Land
Management |
10,473 |
14,346 |
148,894 |
1,646,388 |
1,820,101 |
National Park Service |
796,292 |
35,255 |
0 |
643,328 |
1,474,875 |
Department of
Defense |
24,038 |
4,145 |
0 |
0 |
28,183 |
Bureau of Reclamation |
0 |
0 |
0 |
270,276 |
270,276 |
Unknown Federal * |
0 |
0 |
0 |
385,995 |
385,995 |
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Total |
830,803 |
53,746 |
524,731 |
3,220,603 |
4,629,883 |
Critical
Habitat Units |
11 |
6 |
2 |
5 |
24 |
* Includes land identified in the current Utah land
ownership file as National Recreation Area or National Recreation Area/ Power Withdrawal;
Federal land ownership is unclear (may be NPS, BOR, or other). |
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CRITICAL
HABITAT UNIT MAPS |
To view more detailed
maps, click on a specific Critical Habitat Unit Code below.
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HIGH-QUALITY
CRITICAL HABITAT MAPS |
To download large,
high-quality maps, click/hold and "Save as ..." using the links below.
--- Each image is 300 dpi, approximately 8 inches by 8.25 inches and 0.5 Mb to 1.8 Mb in
file size ---
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ORDERING PRINTED MAPS |
A limited quantity of
printed versions of the High-Quality Maps are available. These maps are
approximately 21 by 21 inches and are essentially identical to those shown above.
When ordering, please be sure to identify the Critical Habitat Unit(s) desired and provide
a complete mailing address within the body of your e-mail.
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To request printed maps of
Critical Habitat Units, click here. |
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GEOGRAPHIC
COORDINATES |
An ASCII (tab
delimited) text file is available which provides every (N = 9,458) legally-defining
geographic coordinate pair for each Critical Habitat Unit. Coordinates are provided
as Longitude and Latitude decimal degrees on North American Datum 1983 (NAD83).
NOTE: Supporting Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata is not yet
available.
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To download the legal geographic
coordinate pairs defining the Critical Habitat Units, click
here. |
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GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) MAP FILES |
Digital versions of
the Critical Habitat Units are available. These files are Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) -ready, but supporting Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata is
not yet available.
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To request Geographic Information
System (GIS) files of the Critical Habitat Units, click
here. |
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ADDITIONAL ELECTRONIC LIBRARY REFERENCE MATERIALS: |
To download /
view reference materials, click on the links below. |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Date |
Digital Library Reference |
| Final Draft Economic Analysis of Critical Habitat Designation for the Mexican Spotted Owl. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. |
2004 |
Draft Economic Analysis 2004 |
| Draft Environmental Assessment of Critical Habitat Designation for the Mexican Spotted Owl. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. |
2004 |
Draft Environmental Assessment 2004 |
| Mexican Spotted Owl Critical Habitat: Proposed rule; reopening of public comment period, notice of availability of draft economic analysis and draft environmental assessment, and notice of a public meeting. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Federal Register |
2004 |
Federal
Register: Proposed Rule |
| Proposed Designation of Critical Habitat of
the Mexican Spotted Owl - Federal Register. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Federal Register |
2000 |
Federal
Register: Proposed Rule |
| Proposed Determination of Critical
Habitat Designation of the Mexican Spotted Owl - Federal Register. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Federal Register |
1994 |
Federal
Register: Proposed Rule |
| Final Designation of Critical Habitat of
the Mexican Spotted Owl - Federal Register. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Federal Register |
2001 |
Federal
Register: Final Rule |
| Draft Economic Analysis of Critical
Habitat Designation for the Mexican Spotted Owl. |
Robert E. Unsworth, Sarah J. Malloy, and Matthew
M. Engler. |
2000 |
Draft Economic
Analysis |
| Final (Addendum to Draft) Economic Analysis of Critical
Habitat Designation for the Mexican Spotted Owl. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. |
2001 |
Final Economic
Analysis |
| Draft Environmental Assessment - Title
Page and Table of Contents: Designation of Critical Habitat for the Mexican Spotted Owl. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. |
2000 |
Draft
Envir Assess-Title Page ToC |
| Draft Environmental Assessment:
Designation of Critical Habitat for the Mexican Spotted Owl. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. |
2000 |
Draft
Environmental Assessment |
| Final Environmental Assessment:
Designation of Critical Habitat for the Mexican Spotted Owl. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. |
2001 |
Final
Environmental Assessment |
| Recovery Plan for the Mexican Spotted Owl
by FWS, Albuquerque, NM. |
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. |
1995 |
Recovery Plan |
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