Subject: BARRED OWLS IN WASHINGTON
Date: Jun 24 10:16:25 2001
From: Robert Norton - norton36 at olypen.com


In line with this thread. Roger Hoffman told me that the BARRED OWLS
nesting at the fringes of SPOTTED OWL habitat in Olympic National Park do
not seem to have good reproductive success.
Bob Norton
Joyce (near Port Angeles), WA
norton36 at olypen.com
----- Original Message -----
From: <Norton360 at aol.com>
To: <norton36 at olypen.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2001 9:59 AM
Subject: RE: BARRED OWLS IN WASHINGTON


> In a message dated Sun, 24 Jun 2001 07:26:41 British Summer Time, Kelly
Mcallister <mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov> writes:
>
> <<
>
> Wayne C. Weber wrote:
>
> > However, it is my distinct impression that Barred Owls generally do not
occupy large
> > areas of old-growth forest in western Washington, and are more likely to
displace
> > Spotted Owls from small areas of old-growth or from marginal habitats.
Someone who has
> > done research on the 2 species in Washington could answer this question
better than I.
>
> What an interesting and useful discussion. I can't pretend to have a whole
lot of insight
> into the relationship between Barred Owls and Spotted Owls but I think
that many recently
> occupied Spotted Owl habitat areas fit fairly well into the categories
"small" or "marginal".
> Certainly, many areas occupied by Spotted Owls have significant amounts of
old-growth
> forest but often in fragments surrounded by young deciduous and mixed
forest types. These
> situations may well favor Barred Owls. The really extensive old-growth
forest tracts, where
> Barred Owls may never gain an advantage over Spotted Owls, may be limited
to very few places;
> perhaps National Parks like Olympic National Park and Mount Rainier
National Park. Would the
> Spotted Owl population persist for very long if restricted to these two
parks? Probably not.
>
> Ulimately, as Wayne says, it is the habitat alterations of humans that
cause the loss of species
> like the Spotted Owl but it is important to also recognize that habitat
loss is working in
> a vacuum. There are often complex interactions with competitors that
influence whether or not
> a species will persist in the face of extensive habitat alteration. In the
realm that I am
> more familiar with, I believe that many native amphibians would persist in
certain severely
> altered aquatic environments if it weren't for the competitive advantage
provided to the
> introduced Bullfrog. It's a matter of habitat alteration tipping the
balance in favor of
> a competitor that happens to be waiting in the wings ready to come on down
and set up
> house keeping.
>
>
> Kelly McAllister
> Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
> Olympia, Washington
> Reply to: mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov
>
>
> >>
>
>