Conservation groups defend plan to protect wildlife from invasive barred owl

Barred Owl Removal is Necessary to Conserve Northern Spotted Owls

 

SEATTLE, Wash. — A coalition of environmental organizations and bird advocacy groups from across the Pacific Northwest has moved to intervene in defense of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Barred Owl Management Strategy in two lawsuits in federal court. The Barred Owl Management Strategy offers a strong permitting and monitoring framework for federal, state and tribal governments and private landowners to engage in lethal barred owl removal under stringent and humane protocols. The Strategy outlines areas where the minimum barred owl removal would have the most significant beneficial effects on the continued existence of the northern spotted owl and California spotted owl.

“Without barred owl management and older forest habitat protections, the northern spotted owl and California spotted owl are likely to go extinct in the wild in the near future,” said Tom Wheeler, Executive Director at Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC). “Barred owl control is well studied and has been shown to be extremely effective in countering barred owl threats to spotted owl survival, recruitment and recovery.”

Barred owls are invasive in the Pacific Northwest and have expanded West from their eastern range due to human modifications to the landscape. Pacific Northwest ecosystems are not adapted to this novel generalist predator and are experiencing severe distress, best exemplified by the population decline of the northern spotted owl: the invasive barred owl aggregates in higher densities, displaces spotted owls, disrupts nesting and competes for food, causing severe spotted owl population declines. Barred owl removal experiments have been performed across the northern spotted owl range with uniformly positive results.

“It’s incredibly sad to be in this position still reckoning with past decisions to liquidate most of the spotted owl’s old-growth forest habitat,” said Dave Werntz, Science and Conservation Director at Conservation Northwest. “Unfortunately, killing barred owls in parts of the Pacific Northwest is the only feasible, humane, and experimentally validated approach for ensuring the conservation of both owls in their native ecosystems.”

The lawsuits brought by animal welfare groups claim that barred owl removal would significantly impact the environment. The environmental coalition and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service find that failing to conduct barred owl removal will have significant and severe negative impacts on the environment, forest ecosystems, and the imperiled northern spotted owl. Lethal removal is a common tool often used in wildlife management (e.g., brown-headed cowbirds for Kirtland warblers, bullfrogs for native frogs, etc.)

“Barred owl removal protects more than just spotted owls. Barred owls have a more diverse diet than spotted owls, and their larger body size and robust population mean that old-growth forest ecosystems are at risk of unraveling,” said George Seton with KS Wild. “Unless we immediately address barred owl encroachment, there is a real risk that the complex ancient forest ecosystems that spotted owls and other wildlife depend upon for survival will simply collapse.”

Scientists warn that barred owl invasion may trigger a “trophic cascade,” where removing keystone species such as the northern spotted owl and replacing it with a nonnative species can create ecosystem collapse.

“As environmental organizations, our mission is to protect the health of the environment, which can sometimes mean hard decisions involving complex tradeoffs. This is one such situation,” said Janice Reid with Umpqua Watersheds. “No one likes the idea of shooting one owl to save another owl, but without the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Barred Owl Management Program, the iconic northern spotted owl will go extinct in our lifetimes. That’s an outcome we are not prepared to accept.”

The environmental coalition is represented by Susan Jane Brown of Silvix Resources, a non-profit environmental law firm. The coalition includes Environmental Information Protection Center, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Umpqua Watersheds, Conservation Northwest, and Marin Audubon Society.

Media Contacts:

Tom Wheeler, tom@wildcalifornia.org, (206) 356-8689

Dave Werntz, dwerntz@conservationnw.org, (360) 319-9949

Susan Jane Brown, sjb@silvix.org, (503) 680-5513

Images for Media Use (Credit: Danny Hofstadter)

Conservation Northwest “Frequently Asked Questions” 

USFWS Barred Owl Management “Frequently Asked Questions”

Motion to Intervene, Friends of Animals v. Morrison et al., 3:24-cv-01928-AN

Motion to Intervene, Animal Wellness Action et al. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv. et al., 2:24-cv-01796-TL

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