siena_story_spottedowls-0985
Active clearcutting still takes place across Clatsop County, Ore., one of the regions where teams survey for northern spotted owls. Research teams roam sites in this area, calling for spotted owls, but have yet to find any in 2022, despite Oregon being a state with a larger abundance of northern spotted owls. They have, however, observed barred, great horned, northern sawhet and pygmy owls. Oregon has placed limits on the size of clear-cuts, but the state ranks number two in the country for the highest rate of clearcutting, outranked only by California. Christopher Mccafferty, a biologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Corvallis, Ore., says that widespread clearcutting has come right up to the edges of wilderness areas, which have become final hideouts for northern spotted owls.