Forest Service award honors Mexican spotted owl work

[Cara J]

Twenty-eight Forest Service scientists and land managers, along with a suite of collaborators, are sharing the distinguished Research Partnership Award, one of four Wings Across the Americas awards. Every year, the Forest Service recognizes outstanding work by agency personnel and their conservation partners in conserving birds, bats, butterflies and dragonflies. The Wings Across the Americas awards acknowledge projects or program that enhances the conservation and concern for migratory wildlife and their habitat needs in an urban environment. Since 1983, an interagency team of researchers and managers led by the Rocky Mountain Research Station has worked cooperatively to understand the ecology of the Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) and translate the results into management recommendations. This research has collectively influenced management across millions of acres of forests in the American Southwest and Mexico. The management approaches recognize the importance of balancing the short-term need to conserve existing habitat while ensuring the long-term sustainability of owl habitat in the future. The success of this project is due in part to the inter-disciplinary efforts to assess disturbance, forest ecology, landscape, and impacts to wildlife habitat, and to the close collaboration between wildlife ecologists and managers to ensure habitat well into the future. The Forest [...]

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