Explaining the Pacific Northwest owl controversy

 

This is a longish article about why there is a proposed barred owl hunt-and-kill to help spotted owls.

Owl vs. Owl

A Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to save northern spotted owls by killing barred owls splits conservationists and wildlife lovers 

Here's an interesting part:

"THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE points to the outcome of the initial experiment as a reason to scale the strategy up. Robin Bown, the barred owl management lead, said that in areas where barred owls were killed, spotted owls experienced a population stabilization, compared with a 12 percent decline in populations where barred owls were not. She also pointed out that the loss of even 470,000 barred owls won’t make a significant dent in that species’ total numbers. “We’re not going to eliminate them from the West, and we’re not trying to,” Bown said. “But if we manage them, and if we can find pockets of areas where we can keep our native spotted owls—at least for now—then we will have both our species.”

“Ethically, it’s not comfortable for people,” Bown continued. “But if we don’t do it, we lose our species. If we do it, we can have both.”

The fact remains that under the Endangered Species Act, FWS has a legal obligation to do something. “There’s not a clause in the act that says, ‘things are so bad, we’re going to give up,’” said Katherine Fitzgerald, the northern spotted owl recovery lead with the FWS. “What it says is that we should conserve threatened and endangered species, which means work toward recovery. That’s what we’re obligated to do, and that’s what we’ll do.”

And we don't want to lose them.  Turn up the sound.  While you're listening, remember that climate change-related wildfire intensity increase has also diminished northern spotted owl habitat.