The Forest Service’s Bear-Palmer Logging and Burning Project Will Devastate Snag-Dependent Owls

The Custer-Gallatin National Forest proposed the Bear-Palmer “Forest Health” Project on the northern border of Yellowstone National Park, near Gardiner, Montana.  The project would clearcut 824 acres, commercially log most trees on 802 acres, and leave small, isolated clusters of trees on 500 acres, for a total of 2,126 acres, which will then be intentionally burned.

The agency claims the goal of the logging and burning project is to remove dead/dying trees to reduce insects such as the Mountain Pine Beetle, Douglas-fir Beetle, and the Spruce Budworm. But these native insect populations also feed various species of woodpeckers, which drill nesting cavities for other birds, including forest owls, which will be significantly impacted by the project.

There are 15 species of owls in Montana.  In the project area, there are four owl species that require “snags,” which are standing dead trees, for nesting: the Great Gray Owl,  Boreal Owl, Northern Pygmy Owl, and Northern Saw-whet Owl.  The Great Gray Owl nests on top of broken snags, and Boreal Owls require large snags at least 25 inches in diameter, while the Northern Pygmy and Northern Saw-whet Owls can use snags at least 12 inches in diameter.

So what happens to these owls in the project area when the Forest Service cuts down all the dead trees to supposedly remove the insects?

First, there will be a direct loss of woodpecker populations due to loss of the insects on which they feed.  That means a reduction in the number of cavities woodpeckers drill in snags, which will reduce or eliminate nesting habitat for the cavity-nesting owls.

The Custer-Gallatin Forest Plan “suggests” that logging will maintain four snags per acre, but it also allows substitution with green trees.  The Bear-Palmer proposal is silent on snag retention in units and instead claims that green trees will be retained for “future recruitment of snags.” The project’s required snag size of at least 6 inches in diameter is well below the size needed for the forest owls.

To make matters worse, snags aren’t required to be left in each logging unit. Instead, they can be “averaged out” across all logging units, meaning snags may be retained on only a small portion of all units, or none if green trees are counted as snags.

The Custer-Gallatin Forest Plan says “known” forest raptor nests will be protected from disturbances, but does not require any specific population monitoring of forest owls nor surveys for forest owls in logging units.  Instead, the monitoring plan says population monitoring will be of “land bird species/assemblages associated with forest vegetation.”

What this means is unknown, as is how it will “protect” forest owl nests without surveying and monitoring for forest owls.

Currently, many National Forests use the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions as substitution for forest monitoring of birds.  Since this large-scale monitoring program cannot measure impacts of local logging projects, it effectively eviscerates agency requirements to measure impacts of logging projects on wildlife — including forest owls — in the Bear-Palmer project area since the proposal does not indicate that any forest owl surveys will be done.

For perspective, the Targhee National Forest Plan requires 1,600 acres of forest habitat to be protected for Great Gray Owls around each of their nests and 3,600 acres around each Boreal Owl nest.  But the Bear-Palmer logging and burning proposal alone will destroy nesting habitat for forest owls on 2,126 acres.

The bottom line is if the Bear-Palmer project is approved, it will not leave sufficient habitat to provide adequate nesting and foraging for owls. Comments on the project are due due May 11th and it should be opposed due to its failure to protect Montana’s forest owls.