An evolving process: protecting spotted owl habitat through landscape management

Abstract

A network of late-successional forest reserves is central to the Northwest Forest Plan, the guiding vision for managing federal forests in Washington, Oregon, and northern California within the range of the northern spotted owl. These reserves were created to maintain older forest structure as habitat for the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and other associated species. Since the plan’s adoption in 1994, however, scientific thinking has evolved to question the ecological suitability of reserves as the primary recovery strategy for the northern spotted owl in the fire-prone forests of eastern Washington and Oregon.

based on science by John Lehmkuhl, and Paul Hessburg

Citation

Feinstein, Michael; Lehmkuhl, John; Hessburg, Paul. 2010. An evolving process: protecting spotted owl habitat through landscape management. Science Findings 125. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 5 p.