Many people have asked us about our stand on the Fish & Wildlife proposal to kill barred owls to protect spotted owls in California. This is our position. We have sent in comment letters.
The Federal Fish & Wildlife Department FWS proposed shooting and killing barred owls in California, Washington and Oregon to allegedly save the spotted owl. This is their official proposal made November 2023 linked below. They claim the barred owl isn't native to these specific areas. Barred owls expanded their range across the nation naturally. They weren't artificially introduced.
The real cause of reduction of spotted owl population is climate change, bark beetle, human development, wildfires, timber harvest, drought... Barred owls are larger, more aggressive and more adaptable than spotted owls. Barred owls are more adaptable as to their wider variety of prey, nesting sites, habitat range...They out compete spotted owls for prey, habitat and space. Barred owls aren't fighting and killing spotted owls directly.
Fish & Wildlife has offered these same solutions for Fox Tree Squirrels versus Western Gray Squirrels. It's the same issue though fox squirrels have two litters per year as opposed to one for WSG. If you kill all barred owls, spotted owls will still decline for the reasons stated above. They need to look at the root causes of the decline in spotted owls and deal with those issues. That will save spotted owls and many other animals.
"Abstract: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has developed a proposed Barred Owl
Management Strategy to address the threat of the non-native, invasive barred owl to the native
northern and California spotted owls. This action is necessary to support the survival of the
threatened northern spotted owl and avoid substantial impacts to the California spotted owl
populations from barred owl competition. This Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft
EIS) was prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This Draft EIS
evaluates the impacts of six alternatives, including a no action alternative, on the human
environment, including spotted owls, barred owls, other wildlife species, recreation and visitor
use, wilderness areas, socioeconomics, and climate change."
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