Mexican spotted owls apparently love the canyons and pockets of big old trees on the watershed of the C.C. Cragin Reservoir – Payson’s crucial future water supply. The dozens of potential nesting territories for these small, deep-forest-loving owls has complicated and slowed the environmental analysis for a thinning project intended to prevent a forest-destroying wildfire on the 50,000-acre watershed. However, a series of recent studies suggest owl experts may have over-estimated the need of the owls for thickets of trees. Moreover, any way you figure it – a high intensity fire on the watershed will do far more damage than any combination of thinning and controlled burning, according to eye-opening new surveys of wildfire impacts on spotted owls.