To save the spotted owls of the Pacific Northwest, U.S. authorities plan to kill hundreds of thousands of another owl species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Wednesday released its final environmental impact statement on how it plans to save the spotted owl, a species native to the Pacific Northwest.
Some studies indicate that there are only 15,000 spotted owls worldwide.
The bird’s population has declined sharply in recent years due to habitat loss and the extinction of its cousin, the tawny owl.
The barred owl is native to the east coast but has expanded its range, competing with and displacing the spotted owl from its natural habitat.
To save the native owl, which is on the brink of extinction, the USFWS said trained marksmen would use rifles to kill nearly 500,000 barred owls over the next three decades.
The shooters are trained to recognize tawny owls in their environment.
Officials told KIRO 7 News they understand the importance of restoring natural habitats and the loss of human lives.
“We recognized both the importance of the habitat and the concerns about the threats to the tawny owl,” said Bridget Moran, deputy state supervisor for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“While those efforts have been successful in restoring many habitats, the invasion of the American tawny owl has increased significantly. And we’re now at a point where we have the science to support that without doing something for the American tawny owl, the American tawny owl is likely to become extinct,” she added.
Since the mid-1980s, the pied owls have been displacing the spotted owls from their natural habitat.
Although both owls look the same to the naked eye, the barred owls are slightly larger and more aggressive.
They eat a greater number of animals, which can have consequences for the natural food chain in the wild.
“There are scientists who are very concerned that this could cause a collapse of our food web in some areas on the West Coast,” said Robin Bown, lead biologist in developing a tawny owl management strategy.
She added: “We’ve looked at capture. We’ve looked at translocation. We’ve looked at sterilisation. There’s just no single method that really works.”
KIRO 7 News also spoke with Claire Catania, executive director of Birds Connect Seattle, a nonprofit that advocates for birds and forests across Washington.
“We don’t have a significant population of northern spotted owls in King County at all,” she said, describing the current situation.
“We need to protect the Northern Spotted Owls. This is a species in crisis. This is a species that is on the brink of extinction,” she said. “We need drastic action now to protect this species. To save this species because we are failing to protect the old-growth forests that these owls need.”
According to Catania, the federal program’s plan has drawn mixed reactions from animal and environmental activists.
“Not just a few Northern Spotted Owls, but the entire species. Trying to quantify what that’s worth in terms of the value of the individual lives of another species,” she shared. “The Barred Owls, which are essentially innocent in this whole equation, should be the ones who suffer the consequences of our poor forest management decisions.”
“This is something we are going to have to deal with more and more if we don’t take more serious and urgent action on climate change and continued habitat loss. We are left with two bad choices, in this case the extinction of the Northern Spotted Owl or this violent management plan,” Catania added.
A final decision on the USFWS’s new plan is expected in about a month.
If the plan is adopted, it will come into effect as early as next spring.
