The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to target barred owls in the hopes that eliminating them will save a genetically related species.
In a final plan released Wednesday, the service proposes culling up to 450,000 barred owls over 30 years, despite opposition from some animal rights activists and Washington state’s top public lands official.
The plan, published in a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), aims to prevent the extinction of the barred owl, an endangered species that is being pushed out of its native habitat by the larger, faster-breeding spotted owl.
“We’re at a crossroads. We’ve developed the science and we’ve analyzed everything,” said Bridget Moran, deputy state supervisor for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We have to manage the barred owl. There is still time to protect the barred owl, but that time is running out.”
Commonly found in the eastern U.S., the barred owl is not native to the West Coast, likely arriving as a result of European settlers spreading westward. The species was first discovered in the barred owl range of Washington state in the 1970s.
Recent range expansion of barred owls has had a dramatic effect on barred owl populations in forests along the West Coast, with the Fish and Wildlife Service estimating that barred owl populations have declined by 75% over the past 20 years.
The Wildlife Service’s final proposal calls for professional teams to broadcast “territorial calls” to lure barred owls and shoot them with shotguns. The proposal would not allow the public to hunt the birds.
The service believes that great horned owls will slowly recover if they face less competition from barred owls: An experimental study funded by the Fish and Wildlife Service and published in 2021 found that great horned owls were 10% more likely to survive in areas where they had been removed.
Robin Brown, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and the agency’s spotted owl program director, said the management plan won’t completely eliminate the bird from the West Coast.
“Both species will remain,” Brown said, adding that the plan would eliminate only about 0.5 percent of the nation’s barred owl population.
The proposal to kill hundreds of thousands of barred owls has been met with a mix of criticism and support.
“Shooting hundreds of thousands of barred owls is a reckless and cruel management plan,” said Jennifer Best, director of wildlife law for Friends of Animals, a Connecticut-based nonprofit animal protection group that has opposed the Fish and Wildlife Service on the issue. “Once the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Final Determination are released, we will review them and decide whether to pursue legal action.”
Washington state Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz questioned how much the plan would cost and whether it would have unintended consequences, calling it an “extreme solution” in a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
“A wildlife management plan of this scale has never been successfully implemented. The USFWS has not stated the cost of the plan, but conservative estimates from outside sources put the cost at $235 million over 30 years,” Franz wrote, adding that he worried the plan was “unfeasible.”
(The cost estimate Franz cited came from a retired Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who is skeptical of the plan.)
Moran said the cost of the program will depend heavily on which agencies and land managers participate and cannot yet be estimated.
The Oregon Department of Forestry supported the final proposal, saying in public comments that the plan “acknowledges the severity of the proposed actions and recognizes the complex threats to barred owls.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service has one month to issue a formal record of decision. Barred owls are protected by the Migratory Bird Convention, and the Fish and Wildlife Service must obtain its own permit to begin any culls.
