Canada Spotted Owls to Be Captured

Canada Spotted Owls to Be Captured

May 2007 -   A secret British 
Columbia government plan to capture the last 16 wild northern spotted owls 
remaining in the Canada and put them into a captive breeding program was 
leaked to an environmental group, which made the plan public today. 
The "Northern Spotted Owl Population Enhancement and Recovery in British 
Columbia Proposed Five-Year Action Plan," was commissioned by the Liberal 
Government of Premier Gordon campbell. It was written by a scientific team 
assembled by the government. 
The seven member team includes three American government scientists and an 
American from a nonprofit organization, an official of the Toronto Zoo, a 
forest scientist from the University of British Columbia, and independent 
consultant Mike Fenger of Victoria, B.C., who chairs the team. 
The Western Canada Wilderness Committee, which received the leaked 
Five-Year Action Plan, written in March, says the provincial government 
wants to get rid of the endangered owls so it can log their last remaining 
habitat in southwestern British Columbia. 
Northern spotted owls depend upon old growth forests for their habitat. 
The large, old trees are also the most prized by timber companies. (Photo 
by Jared Hobbs courtesy SOPET)
"Putting wild owls in zoos while continuing to log their habitat borders 
on the criminally insane," said Joe Foy, campaign director with the 
Wilderness Committee. 
"It’s a cynical attempt to curry public favor while doing nothing to 
recover the species," Foy said. "Where will you release the young owls – 
into a sea of clearcuts?" 
Leak of the plan comes as the Wilderness Committee confirmed active and 
planned logging in several areas that are key owl habitat, including 
Lillooet Lake, Fire Mountain in the Lillooet River Valley and Blackwater 
Creek near Birkenhead Provincial Park 
Provincial government scientists have identified the loss and 
fragmentation of habitat due to logging as the primary threat to the owl. 
The logging is approved under a British Columbia government management 
plan for owls that prioritizes logging over spotted owl protection. The 
B.C. government is the largest logger of owl habitat through its timber 
sales program. 
In April 2006, the B.C. government announced the creation of the team of 
experts to advise on captive breeding and protecting recovery habitat. 
Later, the provincial government changed the team’s terms of reference to 
disregard habitat. The Five-Year Action Plan confirms that the threats of 
habitat fragmentation and habitat loss are "beyond the scope" of the 
team's terms of reference and are "therefore not addressed." 
In December 2006, the government established the Spotted Owl Population 
Enhancement Team, SOPET, an independent science team charged with 
providing advice regarding the variety of approaches that could 
potentially contribute to recovery of Canada's most endangered bird. 
SOPET says its recommendation to removed owls from the wild, breed them in 
captivity and release them back into the wild is based on "professional 
judgment, personal experience and an understanding of the scientific 
literature on population augmentation actions and how these actions might 
translate to Spotted Owl population performance in British Columbia." 
However, SOPET says, population enhancement actions have never been 
comprehensively applied to spotted owls, so while its recommendations are 
based on "our collective expert judgment" they are "characterized by an 
unknown amount of risk and uncertainty." 
"Ultimately," SOPET emphasized, "the success of any population enhancement 
program will depend on adequately addressing the threats that originally 
placed the species at risk – the loss and fragmentation of habitat in the 
case of Spotted Owls in British Columbia." 
Although the issues of habitat loss and fragmentation were placed outside 
the team's terms of reference, SOPET says the habitat issues are critical 
to recovery of the species. 
"We recommend that the British Columbia government, if deciding to 
implement captive breeding, make explicit the commitment to protect 
habitat in the areas where captive bred owls settle, regardless of whether 
those areas are in previously designated owl management areas," SOPET 
wrote. 
"We do not recommend implementing the captive breeding and reintroduction 
approach without such a commitment, as one without the other is not likely 
to succeed," the team said. 
SOPET recommends that removal of the owls should begin this year. The team 
suggests a budget in Year 1 of C$527,000 and an estimated five year budget 
of C$3,42 million. 
The government plan coincides with a court case brought by Sierra Legal, 
on behalf of ForestEthics, the David Suzuki Foundation, Environmental 
Defence, and the Wilderness Committee, that aims to force the Canadian 
government to protect spotted owl habitat using the federal Species at 
Risk Act. 
Documents obtained in the court case reveal that Ottawa contemplated 
intervening in April 2006 in the face of continued logging by British 
Columbia but did not after the BC government promised that steps would be 
taken to recover the owl population and protect their habitat. 
"The capture of all spotted owls would mark the extinction of this species 
from the wild in Canada and amount to an admission by the government of 
its absolute failure to protect the birds’ old forest refuge," said Sierra 
Legal lawyer Devon Page. 
Members of SOPET are:
  Mike Fenger (Chair): Independent Consultant, Victoria, British Columbia 


  Joseph Buchanan: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Wildlife 
  Diversity Division 


  Dr. Tom Cade: The Peregrine Fund, Boise Idaho 


  Dr. Eric Forsman: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research 
  Station, Corvallis, Oregon 


  Dr. Susan Haig: USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 
  Corvallis, Oregon 


  Dr. Kathy Martin: Centre for Applied Conservation Biology,University of 
  British Columbia 


  Dr. William Rapley: Executive Director of Conservation, Education & 
  Research, Toronto Zoo 

       
      

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