Plan calls for killing invasive barred owls in the region as early as spring 2025.
The plan to kill about 450,000 invasive barred owls in the Pacific Northwest to protect native spotted owls will start as soon as spring 2025, with passage of the Barred Owl Management Strategy Aug. 22 and publication in the Federal Register on Sept. 9.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife team in charge of the plan is taking time to ensure that professional removal specialists, as the agency calls them, meet all requirements for training and experience, according to Robin Bown, the barred owl management strategy lead.
“Barred owl management will ramp up over time as we conduct the necessary coordination with interested parties, to ensure that intended implementation is consistent with the strategy and permit conditions,” Bown said.
Non-lethal methods were considered while the plan was being created but were determined not to be efficient enough to ensure the protection of the spotted owls.
The plan has faced many public meetings and comment periods. The team handling the plan reviewed all the comments made and, according to Bown, understands that the extinction of spotted owls and the killing of barred owls are difficult subjects for people to contemplate.
“As biologists, wildlife professionals, we don’t take this decision lightly, but we have a responsibility to future generations to do all we can to prevent spotted owls from going extinct,” Bown said.
The goal is to create a space where spotted owls will be able to thrive. There are two threats facing spotted owls: barred owl competition and habitat loss. The Northwest Forest Plan helped to protect federal forests in the spotted owl ranges and helped their populations to stabilize.
However, since barred owls have invaded spotted owl ranges, their populations have dropped.
Bown believes that to help spotted owls recover and thrive, management of barred owls and habitat conservation for spotted owl ranges must continue to be made. The plan to kill barred owls will occur over the next 30 years.
“This strategy is meant to carve out space for a future where both spotted owls and barred owls continue to live in the West,” Bown said.
— By Margaret Baumgartner