California Spotted Owls Benefit From Forest Restoration
Forest restoration can help California spotted owls that typically depend on old-growth forests, new research finds. Years of heavy logging, droughts, and fires have transformed forests in western North America. Instead of large, old trees with high canopy cover, they are now filled with smaller, newer growth. Scientists were worried that restoration efforts would harm the spotted owls that relied on this habitat. “Forest restoration often involves some removal of live trees—mostly small and medium-sized trees in the forest understory that have grown in because of fire exclusion....