In an effort to save the endangered barred owl, US wildlife officials are moving ahead with a controversial plan to send trained shooters into the dense forests of the West Coast to kill about 500,000 barred owls that are driving out other species.
The strategy, announced Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and obtained advance details by The Associated Press, is aimed at boosting dwindling barred owl populations in Oregon, Washington and California.
Birds as symbols of wisdom — and what owls can teach us about ourselves
According to documents released by the agency, about 450,000 barred owls were scheduled to be shot over a 30-year period because the eastern American barred owls had invaded the habitats of two species of owls on the west coast of the U.S. (the northern spotted owl and the California spotted owl). The smaller barred owls could not compete with the invasive species, which have more offspring and require less space to survive than the barred owls.
Wildlife technician Jordan Hazan records data in his lab from a male barred owl he shot in Corvallis, Oregon, on the night of October 24, 2018. US wildlife officials want to cull hundreds of thousands of barred owls over the next few decades as part of a controversial plan to protect barred owl populations. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Previous efforts to save the barred owls focused on protecting their forested habitat, sparking fierce battles over logging but helping to slow the birds’ decline, but officials say the recent surge in barred owl numbers is undermining those efforts.
“Without aggressive management of barred owls, despite decades of concerted conservation efforts, the barred owl is likely to become extinct throughout all or a significant portion of its range,” said Kesina Lee, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Supervisor.
The idea of killing one bird species to save another has caused conflict among wildlife activists and conservationists, reminiscent of past government efforts to kill salmon-eating sea lions and cormorants to save West Coast salmon, and to protect warblers by killing cowbirds that lay their eggs in the warblers’ nests.
While some advocates reluctantly accepted the barred owl eradication strategy, others called it a reckless departure from necessary forest protections.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service is going from being a protector of wildlife to being a persecutor,” said Wayne Pacelle, founder of the animal rights group Animal Wellness Action, who predicted the plan would fail because the agency would be powerless to stop more barred owls from migrating into areas where other owls have been killed.
Officials said the shooting is expected to begin next spring, with the owls lured in by playing recorded owl calls over a megaphone, then shot with a shotgun, with the carcasses to be buried on the spot.
Researchers have already killed barred owls in some barred owl habitats, removing about 4,500 since 2009, said Robin Vaughn, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s barred owl response lead, including in California’s Sierra Nevada region, where the birds recently arrived and officials hope to stop the population from becoming established.
In other areas where barred owls are more established, officials are trying to reduce their numbers but acknowledge that shooting the birds is unlikely to eliminate them completely.
Supporters include the American Bird Conservancy and other conservation groups.
Steve Holmer, vice president of the American Bird Conservancy, said barred owls are not native to the West, adding that while it would be a shame to kill them, reducing their numbers could allow them to coexist with the birds in the long run.
“If we allow old-growth forests to regenerate, we might be able to coexist and not have to shoot as much,” Holmer said.
Officials say the culling is expected to reduce North America’s barred owl population by less than 1% per year, and if the problem is left unchecked, the bird could become extinct.
Because barred owls are aggressive hunters, removing them could help other West Coast species that they prey on, such as salamanders and crayfish, said Tom Wheeler, director of the Conservation Information Center, a California-based conservation group.
No public hunting of barred owls is permitted. Wildlife services designate government agencies, landowners, Native American tribes or corporations to carry out the kills. Shooters must provide proof of training or experience in owl identification and firearms skills.
A final environmental study on the proposal will be released in the coming days, with a 30-day comment period before a final decision is made.
The Barred Owl Conservation Plan came after decades of conflict between conservationists and timber companies that are logging vast tracts of old-growth forest where the owls live.
Early efforts to save the birds resulted in a logging ban in the 1990s that upset the timber industry and its political allies in Congress.
But ever since barred owls first appeared on the West Coast decades ago, their populations have been declining: At least half of the birds have disappeared from the region, and in some studied areas, numbers have declined by more than 75 percent, said Katherine Fitzgerald, who heads the Wildlife Service’s barred owl recovery program.
Opponents argue that mass killing of barred owls would cause severe disruption to forest ecosystems and risk accidentally shooting other species, including barred owls. They also dispute the idea that barred owls should not live on the West Coast, arguing that their range expansion is a natural ecological phenomenon.
Researchers say barred owls migrated west along one of two routes: either across the Great Plains, where trees planted by settlers provided a foothold into new areas, or through Canada’s boreal forests, where rising temperatures due to climate change have made the region more hospitable.
The spotted owl is federally protected as endangered, and federal officials decided in 2020 that its continued population declines merited upgrading to the more severe “threatened” status, but the Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the decision at the time, saying other species should take priority.
Click here to get the FOX News app
The California spotted owl was proposed for federal protection last year, with a decision still pending.
Under former President Donald Trump’s administration, government officials stripped habitat protections for the spotted owl at the urging of the timber industry. The Interior Department said political appointees under Trump had justified weakening the protections based on flawed science, and habitat protections were reinstated under President Joe Biden.
