The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a contentious plan to save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction by deploying trained shooters into West Coast forests to kill approximately 450,000 barred owls over three decades. The barred owls, originating from the eastern U.S., are encroaching on the territories of the northern and California spotted owls, causing competition for food and habitat that the smaller owls cannot compete with.
The strategy, released on Wednesday, aims to prop up declining spotted owl populations in Oregon, Washington state, and California. Past efforts to save spotted owls focused on protecting their forest habitats, leading to conflicts over logging. However, the proliferation of barred owls in recent years has undermined these earlier conservation efforts, according to officials.
The notion of killing one bird species to save another has divided wildlife advocates and conservationists. Some have grudgingly accepted the proposal, while others denounce it as reckless and a diversion from needed forest preservation. The shootings, which are expected to begin next spring, would involve luring barred owls with recorded owl calls and shooting them with shotguns. Carcasses would be buried on site.
The plan would designate government agencies, landowners, American Indian tribes, or companies to carry out the killings. Shooters would need to provide documentation of training or experience in owl identification and firearm skills. A final environmental study on the proposal will be published in the coming days, opening a 30-day comment period before a final decision.
The conflict between conservationists and timber companies over the spotted owl’s habitat dates back to the 1990s, when logging bans were implemented due to the birds’ declining population. However, the spotted owl populations continued to decline even after barred owls started appearing on the West Coast several decades ago.
Opponents of the plan argue that mass killing of barred owls could cause severe disruption to forest ecosystems and potentially lead to other species, including spotted owls, being mistakenly shot. They also challenge the notion that barred owls don’t belong on the West Coast, characterizing their expanding range as a natural ecological phenomenon.
Researchers suggest that barred owls moved westward by two routes: across the Great Plains, where trees planted by settlers gave them a foothold in new areas, or via Canada’s boreal forests, which have become more hospitable as temperatures rise due to climate change.
Supporters of the plan include the American Bird Conservancy and other conservation groups, who argue that barred owl removal is a necessary measure, along with increased habitat protections for all remaining mature and old-growth forests. Northern spotted owls are federally protected as a threatened species, while a decision on federal protections for California spotted owls is pending.
Under former President Donald Trump, government officials stripped habitat protections for spotted owls at the behest of the timber industry. These protections were reinstated under President Joe Biden after the Interior Department said political appointees under Trump relied on faulty science to justify their weakening of protections.
