Spotted Owls

Monitoring population trends and responses to habitat change and supporting management of an invasive competitor.

Backed by the comprehensive data generated by our Sierra Nevada acoustic monitoring program, this project initially focused on the rapid increase of the invasive Barred Owl population which threatened the native California Spotted Owl. The experimental removal of Barred Owls in Sierra Nevada was successful, leading to a swift recovery of the Spotted Owl population. In California’s coastal redwoods, the Barred Owl continues to threaten the Spotted Owl, and we are supporting real-time acoustic monitoring efforts employed to manage this invasion front

In Sierra Nevada, we’re now focused on understanding how the threat of long-term habitat loss driven by megafires can be counteracted by forest management that risks incurring short-term habitat degradation. Continual refinement of the acoustic monitoring program is central to this effort because accurately assessing where owls are and are not in relation to fire and forest management is essential to understanding – and managing – how the population is changing across time and space.