To save spotted owls, US officials plan to kill hundreds of thousands of another owl species
To save the endangered spotted owl from possible extinction, US conservationists are embracing a controversial plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill nearly half a million people barred owls crowding out their smaller counterparts.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was expected to release its final plan Wednesday to shore up declining spotted owl populations in Oregon, Washington state and California, details of which The Associated Press obtained in advance.
The plan calls for killing up to 470,000 barred owls over three decades after the birds invaded the territory of two West Coast owls from the eastern U.S.: the northern spotted owl and California Spotted OwlsThe smaller spotted owls could not compete for food and habitat with the invaders.
Previous efforts to save spotted owls have focused on protecting the forests where they live. But the proliferation of spotted owls in recent years is undermining that previous work, officials said.
“We’re at a crossroads. We have the science that tells us what we need to do to protect spotted owls, and that requires us to take action on barred owls,” said Bridget Moran, a deputy state supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Oregon.
The idea of killing one species of bird to save another has divided wildlife advocates and conservationists. Some reluctantly accepted the proposal after a draft version was announced last year; others condemned it as reckless and a distraction from the forest’s necessary conservation.
Barred owls are already being killed in spotted owl habitats for research purposes, with about 4,500 removed since 2009, said Robin Bown, barred owl strategy leader for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Those targeted include barred owls in California’s Sierra Nevada region, where the animals have only recently arrived and officials want to prevent populations from expanding.
In other areas where the tawny owl is more common, authorities are trying to reduce its numbers, but they acknowledge that shooting owls is unlikely to lead to complete eradication of the species.
The new plan follows decades of conflict between conservationists and logging companies that are cutting down large swaths of the old-growth forest where the spotted owl lives.
Early efforts to save the birds led to a logging ban in the 1990s, sparking unrest within the timber industry and its political supporters in Congress.
However, spotted owl populations continued to decline after the first spotted owls appeared on the West Coast decades ago.
Opponents say the mass slaughter of barred owls would cause serious disruption to forest ecosystems and could lead to the accidental shooting of other species, including the spotted owl. They have also challenged the notion that barred owls do not belong on the West Coast, characterizing their expanding range as a natural ecological phenomenon.
“The practical elements of the plan are unworkable and its adverse side effects would ripple throughout these forestlands,” critics of the plan wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland earlier this year that was signed by representatives of dozens of animal welfare groups.
Researchers say the tawny owls migrated west via two routes: through the Great Plains, where settlers planted trees that gave them access to new areas, or through Canada’s boreal forests, which have become more hospitable due to rising temperatures caused by climate change.
Advocates of killing the tawny owl to save the spotted owl include the American Bird Conservancy and other conservation organizations.
“Our organizations fully support the removal of the tawny owl as a necessary measure, along with greater habitat protection for all remaining mature and old-growth forests,” the groups said in their comments on a draft proposal to remove the tawny owl that was released last year.
Northern spotted owls are federally protected as an endangered species. Federal officials determined in 2020 that their continued decline warranted an upgrade to the more critical designation of threatened. But the Fish and Wildlife Service declined at the time, saying other species had priority.
California spotted owls were proposed for federal protection last year. A decision is pending.
Under former President Donald Trump, government officials protection of stripped habitats for spotted owls at the request of the timber industry, which were reinstated under President Joe Biden after the Interior Department said Trump appointees relied on flawed science to justify weakening protections.