Despite Evidence, U.S. Wildlife Officials Announced Plan to Kill Barred Owls, Citing Environmental Concerns
“To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, U.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their cousins,” reported the Associated Press on July 3, 2024. “Past efforts to save spotted owls focused on protecting the forests where they live, sparking bitter fights over logging but also helping slow the birds’ decline. The proliferation of barred owls in recent years is undermining that earlier work, officials said.”
However, numerous environmental agencies crafted an open letter urging the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to abandon the plan as “practical elements of the plan are unworkable, and its adverse collateral effects would ripple throughout [the] forest [habitat].” The group of activists and researchers, which includes the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Animal Wellness Action, SPCA International and Center for a Human Economy, argued the plan would produce “an untold number of mistaken-identity kills of other native owl species (including spotted owls), disrupting nesting behavior for animals, poisoning wildlife from dispersed and fragmented lead, and causing rapid dispersal and social chaos among many other species inhabiting these forest ecosystems.” The letter cites lead dispersal alone “will kill thousands of eagles, hawks, owls and other wildlife,” a fact supported by 500 studies.
While the USFWS may want to protect the spotted owl, a similar plan executed in 2021 “show a short-term reduction of barred owls, with only modest numerical gains for spotted owls.” Ultimately, USFWS intervention will result in increased, rather than decreased, environmental damage.
Read More:
