PORT ANGELES — It’s too early to tell what impact a new rule easing logging restrictions will have on northern spotted owl habitat on the North Olympic Peninsula, the state Department of Natural Resources said.
Beginning in January, Washington state forest regulators are going to allow logging in some areas of spotted owl habitat where it had been banned.
That includes old growth forests in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
The state Forest Practices Board adopted an emergency rule on Dec. 15 that allows forest landowners to log in spotted owl habitat under certain conditions in 2009.
It will allow landowners to log if they show that spotted owls are not present.
The rule replaces a statewide moratorium on logging in certain owl sites that ends on Wednesday.
“The board took the action, and we do not have definitive direction for on-the-ground implementation, said John Viada, Olympic Region Manager for DNR.
“It is anticipated that we’ll have more definitive direction sometime next month.”
A three-member spotted owl conservation advisory group must evaluate the site and conclude that it is not needed to protect the owl while the board reviews logging rules in 2009.
The Forest Practices Board will appoint the advisory group at its February meeting.
The spotted owl was declared a threatened species in 1990. Heavy logging in old-growth forests was blamed for its demise.
Harvest restrictions set off a political firestorm in the early 1990s.
The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan — brokered by the Clinton administration — implemented a system of protections for old-growth forests. It allowed forests to be thinned but not cut down.
Even with habitat protections in place, spotted owl populations have declined about 4 percent each year on the Olympic Peninsula and throughout its entire range, which stretches from British Columbia to Northern California.
Wildlife biologists say the barred owl, a larger and more aggressive relative of the spotted owl, has contributed to the decline of the species.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
