Study: Shrinking gene pool among spotted owls contributing to their decline

When the northern spotted owl went on the endangered species list in 1990, it effectively brought federal lands logging to a halt in the Northwest. Nearly two decades later, the number of owls is still dropping, and their shrinking gene pool is part of the problem, a new study concludes. Fewer birds make for a genetic "bottleneck" that increases the potential for interbreeding and reducing the birds' ability to adapt, says the study published this month in the journal Conservation Genetics. "Our results provide independent evidence that northern spotted owls have recently declined, and suggest that loss of genetic variation is an emerging threat to the subspecies' persistence," said the reports' authors, including U.S. Forest Service biologist and longtime owl expert Eric Forsman. Despite the increase in federal forests set aside for the owl under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, their numbers continue to decline at a rate of about 3.7 percent per year, the study found...Oregonian

The whole thing has been an environment and economic disaster, brought to you courtesy of the Politically Superior Ones.