Northern spotted owl populations: Habitat disturbance, barred owls, and other threats

Conservation of northern spotted owls was a central motivator for development and implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan. Through forest succession and a network of late-successional reserves, federal lands are now on a trajectory to provide enough suitable habitat for spotted owl recovery in the next several decades. However, spotted owl populations continue to decline because of lingering and ongoing effects of extensive habitat disturbance, especially on nonfederal land. Furthermore, evidence strongly suggests that the recent invasion of a formidable congeneric competitor—barred owls—is causing accelerated population declines of spotted owls despite widespread conservation of late-succession forest.