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Environmental Assessment -Mexican Spotted Owl Critical Habitat Designation January, 2001 All areas designated as critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl are within the geographical area occupied or potentially occupied by the Mexican spotted owl, in accordance with section 3(5)(A)(i) of the Act, which provides that areas outside the geographical area oocupied by the species may meet the definition of critical habitat upon determination that they are essential for the conservation of the species. It is essential to protect all designated occupied areas as well as potentially occupied areas that will provide habitat for recovery of this species. The designated critical habitat constitutes our best assessment of areas needed for the conservation of the owl and is based on the best scientific and commercial information available. The areas are essential to the conservation of the species because they either currently support populations of the owl, or because they currently possess the necessary habitat requirements for nesting, roosting, and foraging (see description of primary constituent elements). Existing human-construc~d features and structures within designated critical habitat (e.g., buildings, roads, etc.) do not contain Mexican spotted owl habitat and are no[ considered critical habitat. Some units that were proposed as critical habitat were significantly reduced within Arizona and New Mexico because of the exclusion of FS lands. Nevertheless, the remaining Federal lands (e.g., Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service, etc.) within the mapped boundaries in Arizona and New Mexico, are designated as critical habitat. The critical habitat designation on Federal lands adjacent to FS lands within Arizona and New Mexico will ensure that "special management considerations or protections" are provided for the Mexican spotted owl on all Federal lands, pursuant to the definition of critical habitat in section 3 of the Act. We did not designate some areas that are known to have widely scattered owl sites, low population densities, and/or marginal habitat quality, which are not considered to be essential to this species' survival or recovery. State and private lands are not included in this designation. The overwhelming majority of Mexican spotted owl records are from Federal and tribal lands, indicating that those lands are essential to the species' recovery. However, we did not include tribal lands or National Forest lands within Arizona and New Mexico in the designation because we determined that the management of the Mexican spotted owl on those lands with appropriate habitat management plans provides substantial protection and that designazion of critical habitat would provide little or no additional benefit to [he species. 2.2.2 Designation identical to the 1995 Final Rule The 1995 final rule designating critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl was based on the proposed critical habitat designation published in 1994 (59 FR 63162). The previous critical habitat designation was based on extensive use and evaluation of owl habitat and territory maps, vegetation maps, aerial photography, and field verification to identify areas for designation as