Spotted Owl May Lose Habitat Over Tree-Thinning Project

Environmentalists are concerned that Mexican spotted owls living in a Flagstaff forest are in danger due to a tree-thinning project aimed, in fact, at protecting this very species from wildfires, according to reports.

Mormon Mountain in Arizona is the subject of a $10 million project approved in 2012 meant to keep water supplies safe in the event of a forest fire. Likewise, supporters of the plan are also concerned that wildfires pose a grave threat to the endangered spotted owl, and so they believe cutting down large trees in this dense and overgrown forest could help prevent such a devastating catastrophe.

Though, naturally this restorative thinning has some conservationists worried, given that it would reduce habitat for the species as well as its prey.

"It's important to the Center and its many supporters that the final decision avoids unnecessary harm to animals that are at risk of extinction, including the Mexican spotted owl," Jay Lininger, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity told the Arizona Daily Sun.

Others, like Stephen Dewhurst, an associate professor in Northern Arizona University's School of Forestry, disagree.

"The Center seems to have not recognized, or accepted, the clear indications that the way to protect the owl over the long term is not merely through preventing or limiting logging wherever possible - which is their old playbook - but rather through the reduction of fire risk and the alteration of fire behavior across the landscape," Dewhurst said.

The backside of the mountain feeds into the city's surface water supply, Lake Mary. US Forest Service simulations of a wildfire on Mormon Mountain show that its aftereffects would render Flagstaff's surface water supply unusable, forcing taxpayers to cover the cost of an additional 11 water wells at a cost of $2 million a piece.

But the Mexican spotted owl is more the center of this forest debate. Three breeding pairs of these owls make their homes in the rare mixed wet conifer habitat south of Flagstaff.

When these animals were first listed on the Endangered Species Act over 20 years ago, the focus was on threats from timber harvesting. By the late 1980s, biologists estimated that only 2,000 of the birds remained in the world, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Now, wildfires are growing more frequent and considered a bigger threat than logging. The Schultz wildfire in 2010 burned 15,051 acres, the Daily Sun reported, a time when four pairs of owls were active in the area. But while the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project may be controversial, the cost of inaction may be even greater.

"The Schultz fire showed us the price of inaction, and the fact that the voters of Flagstaff are willing to spend $10 million on the Dry Lake Hills project shows that they want this problem addressed," Dewhurst said. "Over the long term, that's going to be good for the owl and for us too."