Conservation Strategy/Measures Clause Examples

Conservation Strategy/Measures. The Cooperator agrees to enhance habitat for RCWs by allowing or providing for one or more of the following management activities: 1. Prescribed burning. 2. Implement forest management practices that enhance habitat for existing baseline groups or provide habitat for additional groups of RCWs (thinning, longer rotations, regeneration that favors pine species). 3. Providing hardwood midstory control. 4. Install artificial cavities in baseline and/or recruitment clusters. 5. Population management. 6. Future conservation measures as may be identified See Section V for specific management activities that the Cooperator agrees to undertake2

Conservation Strategy/Measures. There are a variety of forest management actions that a private landowner can implement to create or improve suitable spotted owl nesting, roosting, foraging and/or dispersal habitat. The Service’s 2008 final Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl (pp. 50- 53) provides a description of spotted owl habitat that can guide forest management actions. Stewardship Agreements that include silvicultural practices (e.g., uneven-aged stand treatments, thinning from below, snag creation, increasing downed wood retention) likely to achieve the characteristics of spotted owl habitat on the enrolled property, taking into account the landscape context in which the site is located, are likely to provide for a net conservation benefit to the spotted owl. The silvicultural practices utilized should result in a net increase in tree diameters and potentially increased stand diversity at the end of the Stewardship Agreement at a minimum. Management for a diversity of tree species, large snags, and multiple canopy layers should be included in the plans where feasible. Stewardship Agreements will offer important benefits to spotted owl populations and to landowners who choose among the management actions listed below. ODF and the Service will review each Stewardship Agreement to ensure that the management actions taken will be reasonably expected to provide a net conservation benefit to spotted owls.