A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday urged the Trump administration to scrap plans to kill more than 450,000 invasive barred owls in West Coast forests as part of efforts to stop the birds from crowding out a smaller type of owl that\u2019s facing potential extinction.<\/p>\n
The 19 lawmakers \u2014 led by Republican Rep. Troy Nehls, a Texas conservative, and Democrat Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a California liberal \u2014 claimed the killings would be \u201cgrossly expensive\u201d and cost $3,000 per bird.<\/p>\n
They questioned if the shootings would help native populations of northern spotted owls, which have long been controversial because of logging restrictions in the birds\u2019 forest habitat beginning in the 1990s, and the closely related California spotted owl.<\/p>\n
Barred owls are native to eastern North America and started appearing in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s. They\u2019ve quickly displaced many spotted owls, which are smaller birds that need larger territories to breed.<\/p>\n
An estimated 100,000 barred owls now live within a range that contains only about 7,100 spotted owls, according to federal officials.<\/p>\n
Under a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan approved last year, trained shooters would target barred owls over 30 years across a maximum of about 23,000 square miles (60,000 square kilometers) in California, Oregon and Washington.<\/p>\n
The plan did not include a cost estimate. But the lawmakers said in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that it could top $1.3 billion based on extrapolating costs from a grant awarded to the the Hoopa Valley Native American Tribe in California to kill up to 1,500 barred owls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an inappropriate and inefficient use of U.S. taxpayer dollars,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. \u201cThis latest plan is an example of our federal government attempting to supersede nature and control environmental outcomes at great cost.\u201d<\/p>\n
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the cost estimate and the owl removal program. The agency\u2019s plan called for more than 2,400 barred owls to be removed this year and for that number to ramp up to more than 15,500 birds annually beginning in 2027.<\/p>\n
Scientists for years have been shooting barred owls on an experimental basis and officials say the results show the strategy could halt spotted owl declines. As of last year, about 4,500 barred owls were killed on the West Coast by researchers since 2009.<\/p>\n
Killing one bird species to save others has divided wildlife advocates and is reminiscent of past government efforts to save West Coast salmon by killing sea lions and cormorants. Or when, to preserve warblers, cowbirds that lay eggs in warbler nests were killed. The barred owl removals would be among the largest such effort to date involving birds of prey, researchers and wildlife advocates said.<\/p>\n
Barred owls arrived in the Pacific Northwest via the Great Plains, where trees planted by settlers gave them a foothold, or via Canada\u2019s boreal forests, which have become warmer and more hospitable as the climate changes, researchers said.<\/p>\n
Their spread has undermined decades of spotted owl restoration efforts that previously focused on protecting forests where they live. That included logging restrictions under former President Bill Clinton that ignited bitter political fights and temporarily helped slow the spotted owl\u2019s decline.<\/p>\n
This article<\/a> by Matthew Brown was first published by APNews on 10 March 2025. Lead Image:\u00a0A female barred owl sits on a branch in the wooded hills, Dec. 13, 2017, outside Philomath, Ore. (AP Photo\/Don Ryan, File).<\/em><\/p>\n Wildlife continues to face threats from overexploitation in the form of poaching and illegal trade in animal products, as well as a rapidly changing climate.<\/p>\n Due to growing threats, 70% of all animal and plant species are at risk of extinction by 2050.<\/p>\n With your donation, our conservation partners<\/a> can continue to motivate millions of people worldwide to take action that protects and preserves wildlife at risk.<\/p>\nWhat you can do<\/h2>\n