The California Spotted

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The California Spotted United States Department of Agriculture The California Spotted Owl: Forest Service Paciflc Southwest Research Station A Technical Assessment General Technical Repott PSW-GTR-133 of Its Current Status Verner, Jared; McKelvey, KevinS.; Noon, Barry R.; Gutikrrez, R. J.; Gould. Gordon I.. Jr.; Beck. Thomas W.,Technical Coordinators. 1992. The California spotted owl: a technical assessment of its current slatus. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-133. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agricul- ture; 285 p. This renort is based an the Final Renart submitted on Mav, 8.. 1992 bv the Technical Assessment~ ~~ Team to the interagency Steering Committee for the California Spotted Owl Assessment. The 13 chapters cover the assessment of thecurrent status of theCaliforniaspotted owl, its biology and habitat use, and forests wherethe subsoecies occurs in the Rerrievol Terns: Strix occidenlalis occidomlis, habitat attributes, old-growth, resource management, Sierra Nevada, southern California Technical Coordinators: Jared Verner, a research wildlife biologist, is Project Leader-Wildlife Monitoring and Range Research, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Fresno. California. and the Technical Assessmenl Team Leader I<e\in S. \lcKrlvr.y 1s :% ~M#rcbwIo~#st ~NII thc St,x.on. 11111 st.~l~~:din AKIL Cdli Harq K. Uwn. 3 ir.e,r:l~ u,tld.lfi. hmlogtrt wtl~the Stat~ou1% Prole;! l.c.dcr-hnoer Wildlife Inrc.~ict~~~.Rc,carcll. Arcdld. R. J. (iatiCrrr~i, professor ofwildlife, Humboldt State University, Arcata. Gordon I. Gould, Jr., is a nongame wildlife biologist with the California Depanment of Fish and Game, Sacmmenta. Thomas W. Beck is a forcst biologist with the Stanislaus National Forest, USDA Forest S"&ce, Sonora, Calif. Cover-: Photographs by John S. Senser, Stanislaus National Forest, Mi-Wuk Village, Calif. Publisher: Pacific Southwest Research Station Albany, California (Mailing address: P.O. Box 245, Berkeley, California 94701-0245 Telephone: 510-559-6300) July 1992 A Technical Assessment of Its Current Status Technical Coordinators: Jared Verner Kevin S. McKelvey Barry R. Noon R. J. Gutierrez Gordon I. Gould, Jr. Thomas W. Beck Contents Part I: Where We Are Now, and Where We Should Go Next Chapter 1. Assessment of lhe current status of the California spotted owl, with recommendations for management ...................................................................................................................... 3 Jared Verner, Kevin S. McKelvey, Barry R. Noon, R. J. Cutidrl-ez, Gordon I. Gould, Jr.. and Thomas W. Beck Chapter 2. Future directions for the California spotted owl effort .................................................................. 27 Jared Ver-ner and Roberl J. Taylor Part IT: About the Owl Chapter 3. Background and the current management situation for the California spotted owl ........................37 Thomas W. Beck and Gordon I.Gould, Jr. Chapter 4. The California spotted owl: general biology and ecological relations .......................... ............. 55 Jared Verrzer, R. J. Girtidrrez, and Gordon I.Could, Jr. Chapter 5. Habitat relations of the California spotted owl ...............................................................................79 R. J. Gutidrr-ez,Jared Verner, Kevin S. McKelvey, Barry R. Noon,George N. Steger, Douglas R. Call, William S. LaHaye, Bruce B. Bingham, and John S. Senser Color Photograph Section ......................... ................................................................................ 99 USDA Forest Serv~ceGen Tech Rep PSW-GTR-I33 1992 Contents Chapter 6. Home-range size and habitat-use patterns of California spotled owls in the Sierra Nevada ......... 149 Cynthia J. Zabel, George N. Steger, Kevin S. McKelvey, Gary P. Eberlein, Barry R. Noon, andJared Verner Chapter 7. Patterns of habitat use by California spotted owls in logged forests of the northern Sierra Nevada .............................. ..........................................................................165 Cynthia J. Zabel, Kevin S. McKelvey, and James D. Johnston Chapter 8. Estimates of demographic parameters and rates of population change ........................................175 Barry R. Noon, Kevin S. McKelvey, Daryl W. Lutz, William S. LaHaye, R. J. Gutiirrez, and Christine A. Moen Chapter 9. Stability properties of the spotted owl metapopulation in southern California .............................I87 Barry R. Noon and Kevin S. McKelvey Chapter 10. General biology of major prey species of the California spotted owl 207 Daniel F. Williams, Jared Verner, Howard F. Sakal, and Jeffrey R Waters Part HI: About Forests and Forest Management Chapter 1 1. Historical perspectives on forests of the Sierra Nevada and the Transverse Ranges of southern California: forest conditions at the turn of the century .. ................ 225 Kevin S. McKelvey and James D. Johnston Chapter 12. Fire and fuels management in relation to owl habitat in forests of the Sierra Nevada and . southern Cal~forn~a................... ... ..................................................................................247 C. Phillip Weatherspoon, Susan J. Husari, and Jan W.van Wagtendonk Chapter 13. Projected trends in owl habitat .... .................................................261 Kevin S. McKelvey and C. Phillip Weather-spoon Appendices Marlene B. Verner, Compile!- Appendix A-Technical Assessment Team and Chronology of Activities ..................................277 Appendix B--Glossary ...............................................................................................................279 Appendix CSpecies List 283 Appendix D-Authors and Their Chapters 285 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-133. 1992. Acronyms PSW --------- Pacific Southwest Research Station (FS) AK--------- Adaptive Kernel estimates of home-range RD&A ------ Research, Development, and Application size Program BLM------- Bureau of Land Management (USDI) R5 ----------- Region 5, Pacific Southwest Region (FS) CDF-------- California Department of Forestry and Fire R6 ----------- Region 6, Pacific Northwest Region (FS) Protection RSAs -------- Random Sample Areas CDFG------ California Department of Fish and Game SEIS ---------Supplemental Environmental Impact CVs-------- Coefficients of Variation Statement d.b.h.------- Diameter at breast height SFs ---------- State Forests EIS -------- Environmental Impact Statement SHPs -------- State Historical Parks ESA ------- Endangered Species Act SOHAs------ Spotted Owl Habitat Areas FS---------- Forest Service (USDA) SPs ---------- State Parks FWS ------ Fish and Wildlife Service (USDI) UC----------- University of California GIS ------- Geographic Information System USDA------- United States Department of Agriculture HCAs ----- Habitat Conservation Areas USDI -------- United States Department of Interior IPs --------- Industrial Private (Timber Companies) USGS ------- United States Geologic Survey (USDI) ISC -------- Interagency Scientific Committee LMPs------ Land Management Plans LTBMU -- Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit MBF------- Thousand Board Feet Metric Equivalents: MCP------- Minimum Convex Polygon estimates of home-range size 1 inch = ------------- 2.54 centimeters MIS ------- Management Indicator Species 1 foot = ------------- 0.305 meters MMBF ---- Million Board Feet 1 square foot = ----- 0.09 square meters MPs ------- Miscellaneous Private Parties 1 acre = -------------- 0.405 hectares NFs ------- National Forests 1 mile = -------------- 1.609 kilometers NFMA ---- National Forest Management Act 1 square mile = ----- 2.59 square kilometers NPs ------- National Parks 1 ounce = ------------ 28.35 grams NPS ------- National Park Service (USDI) 1 pound =------------ 454 grams PNW ------ Pacific Northwest Research Station (FS) USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-133. 1992. iii Preface as set forth in the charter that established the Technical Assess- ment Team. The charter also directed the Team to "follow Maintaining viability of northern spotted owl populations in accepted scientific standards and practices." Accordingly, to the Washington, Oregon, and California, in the face of the many extent possible, we have used the hypothetico-deductive process activities that take place in their habitats, especially logging, has to guide our assessment of available information. We sought to challenged public land managers for nearly two decades. Poli- falsify specific null hypotheses by using empirical data, com- cies and guidelines established by the USDA Forest Service puter models, widely accepted concepts and theories, and pro- during the late 1970s and early 1980s were challenged repeat- fessional judgment (common sense!), rejecting hypotheses that edly, and from opposing camps. The timber industry is con- failed these tests. This does not mean that surviving hypotheses cerned that management of the owl's preferred habitat unneces- are necessarily correct, only that they were not falsified by sarily restricts commodity production, while environmental in- present information. This is the way of science. It inevitably terests contend that Forest Service plans for the owl fall short of leaves us with areas of uncertainty. How we deal with that assuring long-term viability of the bird. Although the contro- uncertainty in the end depends, of course, on society's objec- versy has been more hotly debated over the northern spotted tives. owl, the California spotted owl has recently taken part of the spotlight. The next step in following
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