IT’S A TRAP—THE CASE OF THE BUTTE CREEK TERRITORY OF THE NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL

Abstract

In the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, forests within the range of the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) have changed dramatically over the last two centuries. It began with the loss of frequent fires that indigenous communities set annually to manage their natural resources. This change was exacerbated a century later with the advent of effective fire suppression by the United States Forest Service. A once diverse forested landscape maintained by frequent fires became more uniform. In recent times, urbanization and widespread timber harvesting largely confined remaining owl habitat to federally managed public forest lands. In some places there was less than historically existed and in other places, more. These changes can create ecological traps—areas of low-quality habitat that are occupied for various reasons—where long-term persistence is not possible. A recent (2024) article in Western Birds focused on a Northern Spotted Owl territory that produced three young two years after a large, severe wildfire. Our paper broadens the time perspective for that territory and tells a more holistic story of how the owls occupied it prior to and after the fire. The rapid change in this territory, now unoccupied, is an example of a site-level ecological trap for the Northern Spotted Owl, while the slow forest changes from fire exclusion that preceded the fire exemplify a landscape-scale trap.