How Scientists Prevented New Recovery Plan from Jeopardizing Spotted Owls – July 8, 2011

USFWS' Previous Owl Recovery Plan Used Fear of Fire to Justify More Logging

When U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unveiled its final recovery plan for the northern spotted owl on June 30, it made new headlines. (The spotted owl is famous because the logging of its old-growth forest habitat has pushed this bird to the brink of extinction.) But most of the recent media coverage has overlooked a key facet of the story — how a team of independent scientists helped guide the Fish and Wildlife Service away from an erroneous interpretation of the relationship between spotted owls and forest fires that had threatened to jeopardize protections for the owl.

Photo by John and Karen Hollingsworth/USFWS Threatened northern… more

by: Douglas Bevington

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