Northern Spotted Owl Research Paper
The Threatened Northern Spotted Owl
Imagine you’re a spotted owl mother who just hatched her 4 newborn owlet children. Obviously you’re thrilled to be starting this new chapter of your little owl life with a brand new family but you’re also shadowed with the fear of the young ones safety. The Great Horned and Barred Owl are stalking your new members for a late night snack and the opportunity to run you out of your home like the true savages they are. As their numbers in population increase, your own kind becomes more threatened. Once efforts to expand the Northern Spotted Owls habitat are increased, shared space with the Barred Owl is further limited and protection of their young is improved, then their population will soon increase. That …show more content…
A recovery plan was established in 2008 along with the first critical habitat. The Late-Successional Reserves (LSR) was created across the owl range for suitable nesting areas. This recovery plan includes efforts to recommend non occupied forest lands of the owl to be harvested rather than their current habitat. They also started an experiment to manage the competition such as the Barred Owl and removed many of them from a shared area with the Spotted Owl to see how their numbers were affected and if it made a difference. The studies showed that it did increase the Spotted Owls population growth due to greater space and less of a threat. “Estimates suggest that the amount of suitable habitat available to spotted owls has been reduced by over 60 percent in the last 190 years. Owl numbers appear to have declined annually since 1985 when many studies began. Spotted owls are currently declining at an average rate of 2.9 percent rangewide each year.” (OFWO). Unless in the next few years we can conserve their habitats in these forests, they are at great risk of
Imagine you’re a spotted owl mother who just hatched her 4 newborn owlet children. Obviously you’re thrilled to be starting this new chapter of your little owl life with a brand new family but you’re also shadowed with the fear of the young ones safety. The Great Horned and Barred Owl are stalking your new members for a late night snack and the opportunity to run you out of your home like the true savages they are. As their numbers in population increase, your own kind becomes more threatened. Once efforts to expand the Northern Spotted Owls habitat are increased, shared space with the Barred Owl is further limited and protection of their young is improved, then their population will soon increase. That …show more content…
A recovery plan was established in 2008 along with the first critical habitat. The Late-Successional Reserves (LSR) was created across the owl range for suitable nesting areas. This recovery plan includes efforts to recommend non occupied forest lands of the owl to be harvested rather than their current habitat. They also started an experiment to manage the competition such as the Barred Owl and removed many of them from a shared area with the Spotted Owl to see how their numbers were affected and if it made a difference. The studies showed that it did increase the Spotted Owls population growth due to greater space and less of a threat. “Estimates suggest that the amount of suitable habitat available to spotted owls has been reduced by over 60 percent in the last 190 years. Owl numbers appear to have declined annually since 1985 when many studies began. Spotted owls are currently declining at an average rate of 2.9 percent rangewide each year.” (OFWO). Unless in the next few years we can conserve their habitats in these forests, they are at great risk of