The Spotted Owl Fracas: Mixing Academic, Applied, and Political Ecology

Recent intensive field study and modelling of the Spotted Owl foster optimism that scientists can help solve problems in managing threatened species and can cooperate with government agencies to stem the decline of biotic diversity. The effort shows that field biologists can quickly conduct coordinated research on a species whose habits make it difficult to study, and that modellers can quickly use field data to refine questions and to predict effects of potential management strategies. However, the key empirical finding–that the owl's home range typically encompasses huge amounts of old—growth forest–has generated enormous unease among forest industry interests. They do not relish the prospect that the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service will sequester thousands of acres of forest with timber worth thousands of dollars per acre. The Forest Service, in its tentative plan for managing the Spotted Owl, seems to have taken a middle course. Their preferred alternative includes substantially fewer and smaller sites than are recommended by an advisory panel formed by the major ornithological societies. However, this plan includes much more old growth than the previous one does. Should this plan be enacted, the small chance for long—term survival of the spotted Owl will require increased adherence by individual forests to the spirit as well as the letter of the plan.