Fish and Wildlife Service extends comment period on status review to Oct. 28
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today re-opened public comment on a detailed review of the health of the California spotted owl, a subspecies of spotted owls that ranges from the northern Sierra Nevada and the Central Coast ranges south through the mountains of southern California. The Service is conducting a 12-month review that will be completed by March 14, 2006, and will then decide whether or not to propose listing the species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Beginning with todays notice in the Federal Register, the Service will accept public until Oct. 28, 2005.
The Federal Register notice, which includes information on how to submit comments, can be accessed at the Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Offices Web site at http://www.fws.gov/sacramento/.On June 21, 2005, the Service published an initial decision - known as a 90-day finding - that a petition to list the California spotted owl contained substantial information that listing might be warranted. As part of a comprehensive study - known as a 12-month review - the Service opened a 60-day comment period that concluded on August 22, 2005. Because of the large volume of information relating to forest management activities within the range of the California spotted owl, and the number of scientists involved in monitoring the status of the California spotted owl and its habitat, the Service needs additional time to receive information and comments relating to the status of the owl from federal, state, and private scientists. All comments and information submitted from June 21 through October 28 will be considered by the Service in developing the 12-month finding. The Services 90-day finding was based on scientific information about the subspecies provided in a petition seeking the listing of the California spotted owl and other information. The finding does not mean that the Service has decided it is appropriate to list the California spotted owl. Rather, this finding is the first step in a process that triggers a more thorough review of all the biological information available.This is the Services second review of the California spotted owl in three years, both triggered by petitions and/or lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign and other organizations. This sequence began in February 2003, when the Service found that listing of the California spotted owl was not warranted because the overall magnitude of threats did not rise to the level requiring protection under the ESA.
In May 2004, the petitioners filed a lawsuit challenging that finding. Then in September 2004, they submitted a new petition to list the California spotted owl. In March, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California stayed the litigation to allow the Service to respond to the new petition, and directed the Service to report on the status of that response by June 13, 2005.
The petition contends that several changes have taken place in the last two years which may affect the status and distribution of the California spotted owl. They include further range expansion of the barred owl, which hybridizes with the California spotted owl and takes over its territory; recent fires in spotted owl habitat; revisions to the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment; new state forestry regulations; and potentially relevant analyses of population dynamics. Taken together, the Service concluded in its 90-day review that this may be substantial information and therefore justifies the more detailed analysis that occurs in a status review and 12-month finding.
