Wildfires like Rodeo-Chediski imperil Mexican spotted owls, but is forest work also a threat?

[Disir]

No one knows how many Mexican spotted owls live across the Southwest, whether it's as few as 1,000 or as many as 10,000. The last real count, in targeted areas of Arizona and New Mexico, was completed in 2002.

That same year, the Rodeo-Chediski Fire burned across nearly half a million acres of forest lands in Arizona's White Mountains, long one of the owl's important habitats. The fire charred wide swaths of the owl's territory and raised new questions about its numbers and its long-term recovery.

Researchers are only now beginning to understand the impacts of the fire, at the time the largest in recorded Arizona history. One thing that’s become clear to scientists, advocates and owl enthusiasts is that Mexican spotted owls are struggling to survive.

Federal wildlife managers point to megafires like Rodeo-Chediski as among the biggest threats to the owls and to a whole host of species that live in the forests, including bats, small ground-dwelling mammals and larger animals like elk and bears. A fire as destructive as Rodeo-Chediski can disrupt wildlife habitat for decades.

Still, some independent researchers assert that fire has always been a part of the Southwest and that it’s actually the treatments aimed at limiting fires that harm owl populations.
Wildfires like Rodeo-Chediski imperil Mexican spotted owls, but is forest work also a threat?
I think it's interesting that they remove whatever is left of the trees and that has a significant impact on the owls.

 

[ozro]

As a citizen of the white mountains, a survivor of the rodeo- chedeski fire(lost a house). And a surviver of the larger wallow fire, I have personal experience in what I'm about to say.
It is a moot point. The forest service doesn't cut anything in this forest until it has already burned.
Let me clarify, there is no work going on in the apache-sitgraves national forest, until after a fire happens. Then they come and take the dead trees and reseed the grass.
Because of idiots who have never seen this forest making decisions out of Washington D.C., in the wallow fire we damn near lost Alpine and Greer, and got real lucky when the good lord sent rain and stopped the wind just as the fire entered Eagar.

 

[Gabe Lackmann]

It is a moot point. The forest service doesn't cut anything in this forest until it has already burned.
Let me clarify, there is no work going on in the apache-sitgraves national forest, until after a fire happens.

This is the KEY point...they don't clear anything...because D.C. is run by a bunch of enviro whackos.

 

[Disir]

As a citizen of the white mountains, a survivor of the rodeo- chedeski fire(lost a house). And a surviver of the larger wallow fire, I have personal experience in what I'm about to say.
It is a moot point. The forest service doesn't cut anything in this forest until it has already burned.
Let me clarify, there is no work going on in the apache-sitgraves national forest, until after a fire happens. Then they come and take the dead trees and reseed the grass.
Because of idiots who have never seen this forest making decisions out of Washington D.C., in the wallow fire we damn near lost Alpine and Greer, and got real lucky when the good lord sent rain and stopped the wind just as the fire entered Eagar.

Thanks!