Spotted Owl Controversy: Ethics VS Economics Elijah Gordon

Introduction

The northern spotted owl has always been an iconic image in the Pacific

Northwest, but just mentioning this creature’s name will bring shudders to loggers and many locals nearby. Fear over its existence has caused riots, gathered the attention of many government agencies, and cause people to tie themselves to trees.

These owls have lived in the Old Growth forests of the in the Pacific Northwest for hundreds of years, feeding on the rich plant and invertebrate life created by the decaying timber, unique to an old growth ecosystem. The towering cedars, firs, hemlocks, and spruces, which have served as the owl's habitat, have also become a primary source of timber for a multi-billion dollar logging industry.

The timber industry isn’t the only thing threatening the spotted owl. The opportunistic barred owl has made its way to the West Coast. The barred owl and the spotted owl are like siblings. They’re a closely related species, competing for resources.

They compete for the best trees to roost in, as well as their primary food source, juicy flying squirrels. Barred owls are less picky, giving them a competitive advantage.

This paper examines the current and historic threats posed against the spotted owl and the ecosystems that keep them alive. There have been many conservations and proposed ideas to help solve the challenges this species has encountered. But the question still stands; should we let nature take its course and learn from our mistakes, or should we continue to fight for the survival of this species? Do we, as humans, have the ability to use

1 our Earth’s resources to save them from extinction? Will we use those precious resources to benefit them, or keep them for ourselves?

Biology

Understanding a species’ biology and the role it plays in ecosystem functions is crucial to successful species management.

The northern spotted owl is on the endangered species list and is one of three subspecies of spotted owls. It is dark to chestnut brown in color with white, round spots all around its neck, back, head, and under parts. Their natural habitat is the old growth forests stretching from northern

California, all the way to British Columbia,

Canada. (Spotted Owl)

Since monitoring began in 1985, there has been a population decline of 77 percent in

Washington, 68 percent in Oregon, and 55 percent in northern California (ABC). There are only around 2,000 northern spotted owls left in the wild, and the numbers continue to drop. These owls don’t migrate or move from their territory unless their habitat is disturbed. For example, if a logging company cuts down the forest for lumber, the owls are ultimately forced to leave because those trees are not only home to the owls, but also home to the owl’s food source. The spotted owl’s diet consists of small rodents such as

2 northern flying squirrels, red tree voles and woodrats; which can only be found in old growth forests.

Like most owls, spotted owls are nocturnal and are "Perch & Pounce" predators. They sit on tree branches at night, using their keen vision to scan for prey in the dark. When a potential meal is spotted, they silently swoop down and capture the prey with their talons.

Most birds do not have the ability to chew their food and owls are no exception. Small prey items are swallowed whole, while larger prey is torn into smaller pieces before being swallowed.

The meal will then pass though two special stomachs to help break down the usable nutrients. Its stomach cannot digest the fur, bones, teeth, or feathers. These “extra” parts are formed into a tight pellet inside the owl, which is later regurgitated. Owl pellets help render a complete picture of their diet, by showing the variety of prey species living in the area. Pellets are also helpful because they have the capacity to show what an owl eats from place to place, and from season to season. Understanding any changes to a species diet, is critical for conservation efforts. If the pellets can tell us what the owls are eating, they can also tell us how other species are thriving in the same environment.

Northern spotted owls are monogamous and usually mate for life. Each pair of spotted owls needs a large territory of its own for hunting and nesting. Nests are often constructed in snags (dead standing trees) that have hollows large enough for the owls.

The northern spotted owl is an indicator species. Indicator species are plants and animals that, by their presence, abundance, or lack of abundance illustrate a distinct aspect of the state or quality of an environment. Forests that are able to sustain spotted owls, indicates that there is a large diversity of biomass in the ecosystem. Declaring the spotted owl as an

3 indicator species was a huge step in conservation efforts. This stride is not only vital for the spotted owl and its habitat, but also for anything sharing that habitat.

The spotted owl has also been called an umbrella species. An umbrella species is a species with a wide range, with requirements for living that are as high or higher than other animals in its habitat. This means that if that species' requirements are met, then many other species in the area will be met as well. In the spotted owls’ case, they require old growth forests. If you protect the old growth forests for the spotted owls, you will essentially be protecting everything else living within that habitat. This is a great shortcut used in conservation management to grant protection for several species at once. Instead of having to worry about several species in one area, you can focus efforts on one species that will benefit the range and habitat of the others. This is economical for conservation planning, as it takes less time, effort, and funding. Naming the spotted owl both an indicator and an umbrella species has given this species the spotlight and attention it needs for protection.

Deforestation

Western hemlock and douglas fir support Washington's timber industry. The state is second in the nation for timber production, but the cutting of old growth forests has caused a lot of friction between environmentalists and loggers. From an environmental perspective, the benefits of preserving the northern spotted owl and its habitat far outweigh any of the costs. Saving the spotted owl will save an entire ecosystem that will ultimately benefit plants, animals, and even humans. Because the spotted owl is considered an indicator species, it can be used to gauge the health of the ecosystem that provides its habitat. 4 These ancient, old, growth forests and the life they harbor have formed a complex web of symbiotic relationships that play a very important role in preventing soil erosion, floods, and landslides They also provide clean water for agriculture and cities, which enhance the productivity of salmon fisheries, and enrich the soil with vital nutrients. No amount of reforestation can replace the extensive life and biodiversity that these highly developed ecosystems contain. Old growth forests have taken tens of thousands of years to evolve and grow.

What kind of society would trade the greatness of these rich forests and the abundance of life that inhabits them, for a stack of paper and some two-by-fours? To allow such trade is equivalent to destroying a timeless piece of art that has taken centuries to create. It’s difficult to put into perspective because nothing we do, as humans, will take nearly as many centuries to accomplish. When President Richard Nixon signed the

Endangered Species Act into law in 1973, he stated, "Nothing is more priceless and more

(Redwood National Forest) 5 worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed." (Nixon)

Society should preserve this species and the unique ecosystem it represents not only for aesthetic value, but for scientific value, as well. The northern spotted owl and the habitat it inhabits are of vast scientific value, giving us opportunities for insight and for increasing our understanding of this unique ecosystem and its role in our lives and in those of future generations. To date, little research has been done on these forests. Allowing these virgin forests to fall is permanently destroying the possibility of exploration and the benefits generated by new discoveries. Had the obscure organism known as penicillin become extinct before its discovery, millions of human lives would have been lost. Who knows what secrets these forests may hold?

The timber industry, on the other hand, maintains that the benefits of saving the spotted owl and its habitat are tiny, compared to the harm that will be done. Reduced logging in old-growth forests will be harmful to all Americans, and particularly devastating to those communities in the Pacific Northwest. For most independent lumber mills, these forests are the primary source of lumber. Many of these saw mills were dependent on old- growth cuts because their equipment can only handle trees with large dimensions.

According to one report, if the volume of old growth declines, up to 28,000 jobs could be lost, leading to "increased rates of domestic disputes, divorce, acts of violence, delinquency, vandalism, suicide, alcoholism, and other problems." (González-Cabán)

Timber industry officials continue to state that cutting the old growth is essential if present and future generations are to be provided with the wood and paper products they need. Once these trees have reached their maturity, most of their energy is spent simply

6 maintaining themselves, rather than in new growth. It is in society's best interest to replace these inactive forests with healthy, young trees that will provide a sufficient supply of timber.

In 1986, a worried environmentalist group petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service to list the owl as an "endangered species," a move that would bar the timber industry from clearing these lands. In June 1990, after years of heated negotiation and litigation between the government, environmentalists, and the timber industry, the northern spotted owl was declared a threatened species (González-Cabán). Under this provision, timber companies are required to leave at least 40% of the old-growth forests intact within a 1.3 mile radius of any spotted owl nest or activity site, a provision that is strongly opposed by the timber industry (Adams). Industry representatives claim that the measure will leave thousands of Northwest loggers and mill workers jobless. So they ignored it, they continued to cut down old growth stands in places that were newly protected, illegal logging areas.

On May 1991, Federal District

Judge William Dwyer issued a landmark decision finding that the

Forest Service had violated the

National Forest Management Act by failing to implement an acceptable management plan for the northern

(Old Growth Forest In Washington State) 7 spotted owl. His decision stopped timber sales across the spotted owl region until the

Forest Service implemented an acceptable plan. A ban on blocking timber sales in Northern

Spotted Owl habitat affected 17 national forests in Washington, Oregon and Northern

California.

The consequences for the rural economy in many areas of the Pacific Northwest were devastating. As many as 135 mills were closed, pushing unemployment up to 25 percent in some small communities (Adams). The mill closings affected cutters, loggers, and truck drivers, including other businesses that provided services to them were also out of work. Once booming logging towns soon became ghost towns within the next year.

Economic setbacks, due to saving complex ecosystems and endangered species is a small price to pay. If we continue to focus on quantity over quality, we will exhaust the earth’s precious gifts. We have already caused extensive damage to the environment, plants and animals due to greed and capitalism. It is certainly time for us to pay for our mistakes.

The Barred Owl Threat

Due to the controversies surrounding The

Northern spotted owl, it has become one of the most intensely studied species in the world. Ten years of research and more than 1,000 published studies detail the threats to its survival. (Botkin)

With the listing of the spotted owl, came a recovery effort that radically reduced timber

(Barred Owl located At FHS Wildlife harvests in the Pacific Northwest and protected Rehabilitation Center)

8 large portions of the owl's old-growth habitat. Yet owl numbers continue to drop, and some of the threats are not all man-made. Now the spotted owl faces a new and even more desperate battle, one that has it staring straight into the face of extinction. The new threat comes not from people but from an invasion of its own cousin—the aggressive and highly adaptable barred owl—into the spotted owl’s last territories. Researchers say that the invasive barred owl has been playing a critical role in the continued decline of spotted owls. Barred owls are native to eastern North America. It is believed they began expanding west of the Mississippi River around the turn of the 20th century. This could have been a natural range expansion, human-caused, or a combination of both. The most common theory is that the barred owl’s westward movement was caused by changes to the environment in the Great Plains as people increasingly settled there and dramatically altered the landscape. There are several theories about why barred owls moved westward.

One theory holds that the treeless expanse of the Great Plains once formed a barrier that the owls couldn't cross. As people settled the plains, planting trees in urban parks and windbreaks, and suppressing fires that kept trees from growing, they created stepping- stones for barred owls. The settlers' farms and grain silos also increased the rodent population, providing food for the owls. Barred owls can grow more than two feet tall, compared to a foot and a half for spotted owls. They're also more aggressive and more adaptable. They disrupt the nesting of spotted owls, compete with them for food, and chase them out of their territory. Every time that happens, you have one less pair of spotted owls on the landscape.

A study of the interaction between the two species in western Oregon, led by biologist David Wiens of the U.S. Geological Survey, showed that barred owls nested earlier

9 and more often than spotted owls and produced an average of 4.4 times as many young over a three-year period (ABC). Barred owls also require smaller territories because they'll eat almost anything, from rodents to amphibians to crayfish, whereas spotted owls will eat only a handful of species, such as flying squirrels and red tree voles.

So what’s the big deal anyway? Why does it matter that these barred owls are coming into the spotted owls territory? Well, most owls in the same genus are split up by geographic range, and of those with some degree of range overlap most use different habitat types. In most cases, owls that coexist within the same habitat belong to different genera, and coexistence is supported by differences in behavior, such as hunting methods, and diet or prey selection. The problem is, the barred owl and spotted owl, aside from being in the same genus, share the same habitat (Barred Owl Located at for heavens sake wildlife rehabilitation) requirements. Due to the rapid expansion of the barred owl into the range of the spotted owl, evolution has not had time to play out. The barred owl is the slightly larger and more aggressive of the two species, plus it has some biological advantages over the spotted owl.

Barred owls get by with much less acreage per territory which means they can densely pack the habitat occupied by spotted owls. A recent study in southwest Oregon found that both species use patches of old (greater than 120 years old) conifer forest, and both select riparian habitats for foraging, thus, there is competition for nest sites and food (Bart).

10 Barred owls also take a wider variety of prey species than spotted owls, including prey that is active during the day. This gives barred owls a competitive advantage over spotted owls.

To top it off, barred owls nest more often, more successfully, and produce more young than spotted owls.

In some areas, these barred owls have completely replaced the rare spotted owl.

Forests along Northern California's Redwood Creek were prime spotted owl territory in the

1990s, but then barred owls showed up and flourished, replacing the native species (Bart).

No northern spotted owls have nested in the area for years, and this pattern has repeated itself again and again. But some evidence suggests that removing barred owls from spotted owls' territory can help the endangered species recover. To find out if it's worth it over a wide range, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service are conducting a six-year, $3.5 million study in which 3,600 barred owls will be removed from areas of protected forest in

California, Oregon, and Washington (OFWO).

The birds will be removed from four different forests, two in northern California, one in Oregon and one in Washington. Some birds will be captured but not killed. The Fish and Wildlife Service can't ignore the invasion because it's legally required to help rare species under the Endangered Species Act. Because shooting barred owls is illegal under the migratory bird treaty act, selected wildlife agents have been chosen carry out this experiment. The federal government says if spotted owls come back after barred owls are removed, they may decide to kill barred owls over a broader area.

The idea of killing thousands and thousands of these beautiful barred owls is unacceptable to many people. However, watching a species, like the spotted owl, go extinct is also unacceptable. An advocacy group called Friends of Animals is suing to stop

11 the experiment. The group doesn't believe the government can make a moral argument for shooting an animal, even if it would benefit another animal. "To go in and say we're going to kill thousands and thousands of barred owls, literally forever, I don't see that as being a solution. At some point you have to allow these species to either figure out a way to coexist or for nature to run its course,” said Michael Harris, legal director of Friends of

Animals.

In the end, humans are ultimately responsible for the demise of the northern spotted owl. People cut down most of the forest that these owls called home, they made changes to the Great Plains, which in turn helped move the barred owl west. We have altered nature and caused damages that no amount of money will fix. We have an obligation and a responsibility to save these endangered animals. If there is still a chance to save them, I think we should use our recourses to the fullest to do so. Economic setbacks due to saving complex ecosystems and endangered species is a small price to pay, extinction is forever, and that is what we are facing.

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References

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Bart, J. (Bart) (1995). Amount of Suitable Habitat and Viability of Northern Spotted Owls.

Adams, D., & Brown, G. (Adams) (1994). The Marginal Cost of Species Preservation: The Northern Spotted Owl. Journal Of Environmental Economics And Management, 26(2), 111-128.

González-Cabán, A. (González-Cabán) (1998). A willingness-to-pay function for protecting acres of spotted owl habitat from fire. Ecological Economics, 25(3), 315-322.

Livezey, K. (Livezey) (2009). Range Expansion of Barred Owls, Part I: Chronology and Distribution. The American Midland Naturalist, 161(1), 49-56.

Weathers, W., & Hodum, P. (Weathers) (2001). Thermal Ecology and Ecological Energetics of California Spotted Owls. The Condor, 103(4), 678-690.

LaHaye, W. (LaHaye) (1999). Nest Sites and Nesting Habitat of the Northern Spotted Owl in Northwestern California. The Condor, 101(2), 324-330.

"Spotted Owl Populations Are Dropping Rapidly, Study Says | American Bird Conservancy." (ABC) American Bird Conservancy. Winter 2015. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

Livezey, K. (Livezey) (2010). Killing Barred Owls to Help Spotted Owls I: A Global Perspective. Northwest Naturalist, 91(2), 107-119.

"Northern Spotted Owl." (OFWO) US Fish and Wildlife Services. Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office, 2015. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

"Statement on Signing the Endangered Species Act of 1973.,(Nixon)" Richard Nixon: December 28, 1973. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.

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