Why does the U.S. government want to kill half a million owls?

The United States government wants to save one owl species by killing off nearly half a million of another. The bizarre plan has been approved but it angered advocacy groups in early 2024.

Roughly half a million barred owls are slated to be killed by hunters over 30 years to save the endangered northern spotted owl, which has suffered at the hands of its more successful counterpart the barred owl. But this story is a lot more complicated than that...

The Los Angeles Times reported in March 2024 that the barred owl and northern spotted owl are closely related, so much so that they can interbreed. But the barred owl, an invasive species that hails from the eastern coast, has become a big problem. 

The barred owl is what could be described as a generalist when it comes to the food it eats and the habitat it can thrive in. Barred owls will eat a wide variety of foods and the owl is outperforming its smaller competitor on its home turf. 

The northern spotted owl is pickier about the food that it will eat and prefers to call older old-growth forests home in an area that ranges from California up through Oregon and into British Columbia according to the National Wildlife Foundation. 

While barred owls have thrived, Smithsonian Magazine reported that their success has come at the cost of the northern spotted owl, whose numbers have dropped 75% over the last two decades based on data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Only about 3,000 to 5,200 northern spotted owls live on federal lands in the owl's habitat whereas the barred owl has a population of 100,000 birds in the same area. This is why federal officials have developed a plan in place to cull the owls.

“The populations are really at a tipping point right now,” explained Alan Franklin, a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Wildlife Research Center research scientist. While speaking with Audubon Magazine in 2022. “Something has to be done quickly.”

In a bid to save the northern spotted owl, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said at least 470,000 barred owls should be shot over the next three decades, but activists and advocacy groups are not happy with the planned cullings. 

On March 25th, seventy-five wildlife protection and animal welfare organizations sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior Deborah Haaland advocating against the “reckless” plan to kill nearly half a million barred owls on federal lands. 

“Most nocturnal owls have never been “huntable” species in the United States, and there is no bank of practical experience in conducting such an immense and complicated control program,” the letter explained to Secretary Haaland. 

"Implementing a decades-long plan to unleash untold numbers of 'hunters' in sensitive forest ecosystems is a case of single-species myopia regarding wildlife control," stated the letter before pointing out the federal government's plan was impractical. 

The letter’s authors pointed to several major issues with the federal government’s plan, first noting that it was victimizing a species engaging in range expansion as a result of climate and added mistaken identity would kill off thousands of other owl species. 

Thousands of other eagles, hawks, owls, and other wildlife would also be killed by the lead dispersed from guns meant to kill barred owls according to the letter. “The barred owl killing plan cannot be scaled to work and doomed to fail,” the letter added. 

However, not all wildlife protection groups agreed with the facts presented in the letter to Secretary Haaland. Environmental Protection Information Center’s Tom Wheeler called the letter "factually misleading" and "divorced from what's actually being proposed." 

Photo Credit: Environmental Protection Information Center

Wheeler did explain to the Los Angeles Times that the issue was problematic but added we may not have a choice. "We have a functional choice, which is the extinction of one species, or we could have both species continue to exist on the landscape.”

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

The proposal to cull 470,000 barred owls wasn't close to becoming a reality and the public comment period for the draft’s environmental impact closed in January 2024. However, a final draft of the proposal was expected in the summer of 2024 NBC News report. 

In August 2024, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service adopted the controversial plan to cull the barred owl and released a statement on its website. which was reported on by the Washington State Standard.

Photo credit: Wiki Commons By Hillebrand Steve, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain

“As wildlife professionals, we approached this issue carefully and did not come to this decision lightly,” said Kessina Lee, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Oregon office state supervisor, the Washington State Standard reported.

“Spotted owls are at a crossroads, and we need to manage both barred owls and habitat to save them. This isn’t about choosing one owl over the other,” Lee continued. “If we act now, future generations will be able to see both owls in our Western forests.”

Roughly 15,600 barred owls will be removed from the owl population each year, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes will bring the barred owl's population down to a level that will all the northern spotted owl to survive.

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Mdf, CC BY-SA 3.0

The plan to cull 15,600 barred owls a year will lead to loss of 400,000 to 500,000 barred owls over the next 30 years. However, the culling will only result in the loss of less than 1% of the owl's population in North America each year according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Alannyiri, Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0