Northern spotted owls have been on the endangered list since the 1990s. Researchers say that’s due to habitat loss from logging and invasive Barred owls out-competing them for prey and space.
But a new study from Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service has found that, in many areas, the owls have crossed the line into functional extinction. That is, there are so few left that reproducing enough to endure isn’t possible.
The study showed northern spotted owls approaching functional extinction in Washington and the Oregon Coast. They were not seen or heard at all in the Washington Cascades north of Seattle.
In a press release, Damon Lesmeister, a wildlife biologist at the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station and a courtesy faculty member at Oregon State University, said he hopes the study’s findings “can help shape conservation strategies and improve conservation outcomes for the northern spotted owl.”
Joe Liebezeit, the associate conservation director at the Oregon Bird Alliance, said that crossing the line into functional extinction means the future of the owls in those areas is bleak.
"There are so few individuals left that producing young and putting the owls on a trajectory towards recovery or even stability is not really possible anymore in these parts of the range where there's so few birds left."
Still, he said, the study doesn’t mean the fight to save northern spotted owls is over.
“We still don't want to give up on them. We want to do what we can to bring them back because they are in the surrounding areas,” he said. “That's looking very difficult right now.”
Liebezeit said the Trump administration’s push for more logging while attempting to dismantle the Endangered Species Act isn’t making it easier.
Ongoing litigation and activism is underway to protest the administration’s changes, including the potential removal of a rule prohibiting the construction of roads on national forest land.
The roadless rule protects the northern spotted owls’ forest dwellings, ensuring they are not further displaced, Liebezeit said.
In a statement, Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said the removal of the rule “is the best way to restore the balance, reduce wildfire risk and secure the long-term health of our forests and neighboring communities,” but did not comment on its effect on wildlife.
Liebezeit said the importance of saving the northern spotted owls from extinction is tied to the protection of their habitat: healthy forests.
“If (we) don't protect our mature and old growth forests that are in the northwest, we don't protect our important water sources in the forests that serve thousands of people in communities nearby,” he said. “And if we were just to let the spotted owl go extinct, I think we wouldn't be a true steward of the Earth in protecting against this worldwide extinction crisis.”
