ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1990

CRITICAL HABITAT: 9.6 million acres designated in 2012

RECOVERY PLAN: 2008

RANGE: Southwestern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Northern California

THREATS: Habitat loss and forest fragmentation due to old-growth forest logging, competition with barred owls, urban development, and disease

POPULATION TREND: The northern spotted owl was scraping by on just 12 percent of its former habitat by 1990. No more than 2,500 breeding pairs of northern spotted owls are believed to remain in the United States today, and efforts to monitor the population over the past 15 years continue to show a downward trend.