Logging in Spotted Owl Habitat in the Blackwater Creek Valley

In June 2007, the Board received a complaint about a timber sale in the Blackwater Creek Valley near D’Arcy, in the Squamish Forest District. The complainant, the Blackwater stewardship group, is a group of local residents concerned that logging will harm pine mushroom habitat, spotted owl habitat, and water values. The Board reported previously about the complainant’s concerns with pine mushroom and water. This report deals with the concern about spotted owl habitat.

Scientific and public concern for the quality of management of spotted owl habitat is at the root of this complaint. For the balance of habitat conservation and forest harvesting to be improved, government’s spotted owl RMPs need to be much more specific about the habitat characteristics actually required by the spotted owl; the habitat inventory requirements needed to qualify such suitable habitat; and the boundaries of areas that need to be conserved. Providing forest licensees with well-defined habitat requirements, rather than general expectations, would make government guidance more effective.