Officials will hunt down and KILL 500,000 owls in three US states as part of a radical environmental plan
- READ MORE: Over 20% of migratory animals now at risk in new mass extinction
To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, US wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan: hire trained sharp-shooters to assassinate its rivals.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service strategy released Wednesday is meant to prop up declining spotted owl populations in Oregon, Washington state and California.
Trained shooters will be deployed to the dense forests of the West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their endangered cousins.
Documents released by the agency show up to about 450,000 barred owls would be shot over three decades — a solution designed to level the playing field after this invasive species of owl from the eastern US encroached into western territory.
Both of the Pacific coast's smaller native owls, the northern spotted owls and California spotted owls, have proven unable to compete with the invading barred owls, which breed in larger numbers and need less room to survive.
To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, US wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan: hire trained sharp-shooters to assassinate its rivals. Above, Wildlife tech Jordan Hazan records data in a lab from a rival male barred owl that he shot earlier in the night
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.
'Without actively managing barred owls, northern spotted owls will likely go extinct in all or the majority of their range, despite decades of collaborative conservation efforts,' said Fish and Wildlife Service Oregon state supervisor Kessina Lee.
But the notion of killing one bird species to save another has divided wildlife advocates and conservationists.
It's reminiscent of past government efforts to save West Coast salmon by killing sea lions and cormorants that prey on the fish, and to preserve warblers by killing cowbirds that lay eggs in warbler nests.
Some advocates grudgingly accepted the barred owl removal strategy, while others said it's reckless diversion from needed forest preservation.
'The Fish and Wildlife Service is turning from protector of wildlife to persecutor of wildlife,' said Wayne Pacelle, founder of the advocacy group Animal Wellness Action.
Pacelle predicted the program would fail because the agency won't be able to keep more barred owls from migrating into areas where others have been killed.
A barred owl is shown in the woods outside Philomath, Oregon in December 2017. To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, US wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters
Above, a endagered California spotted owl stares back at human observers in the Tahoe National Forest in California, July 12, 2004
The shootings would likely begin next spring, officials said. Barred owls would be lured using megaphones to broadcast recorded owl calls, then shot with shotguns. Carcasses would be buried on site.
Supporters include the American Bird Conservancy and other conservation groups.
Barred owls don´t belong in the West, said American Bird Conservancy Vice President Steve Holmer. Killing them is unfortunate, he added, but reducing their numbers could allow them to live alongside spotted owls over the long term.
'As the old forests are allowed to regrow, hopefully coexistence is possible and maybe we don´t need to do as much' shooting, Holmer said.
Significantly, the killings would reduce North American barred owl numbers by less than 1% annually, officials said.
That compares with potential extinction for spotted owls, should the problem go unaddressed.
Under former President Donald Trump, government officials stripped habitat protections for spotted owls at the behest of the timber industry.
Those 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.
Northern spotted owls are federally protected as a threatened species. Federal officials determined in 2020 that their continued decline merited an upgrade to the more critical designation of 'endangered.' But the Fish and Wildlife Service refused to do so at the time, saying other species took priority.
California spotted owls were proposed for federal protections last year. A decision is pending.
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