Blasting Some Owls To Save Others?

Government Proposes Selectively Killing Cousins Of Threatened Spotted Owls To Protect The Species

(AP)  A few hundred aggressive cousins of the threatened northern spotted owl may be killed by government agents with shotguns under a proposed federal plan.

The spotted owl was listed as threatened 17 years ago, but its numbers continue to dwindle through much of its range, federal officials said as they proposed a new plan to prevent them from dying out.

Barred owls have crowded the spotted owls out of prime habitat and, in some cases, attacked them.

A new recovery plan would test weeding out a number of barred owls, a program that has been tested in California.

The recovery plan envisions 18 study areas, from each of which 12 to 32 animals would be removed, lured to their deaths by recorded calls and an owl decoy, then shot at close range.

The barred owl is not native to the West Coast, scientists have said, but followed white settlers across the continent. Controlling the owl is part of a draft plan that covers habitat, research and monitoring.

It would cost $198 million and take as much as 30 years to nurture the spotted owl's numbers to the point at which they could be judged as recovered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

In response to the draft plan, interests in the Pacific Northwest took their usual stances over the resource that's been at issue since the spotted owl became a national environmental figure in 1990: large trees in uncut forests known as "old-growth" where spotted owls live.

An environmentalist who was a member of an advisory panel on the new plan charged that Bush administration officials in the departments of Interior and Agriculture ordered changes that could eventually open larger tracts of old-growth for logging.

"They kind of stood the science on its head," said Dominick DellaSala, executive director of the National Center for Conservation Science and Policy in Ashland. "It's not the best available science."

The Humane Society of the United States called the plan to kill barred owls nonsensical, saying the bird was not the primary threat to the spotted owl.

"The decline of the spotted owl is not due to the barred owls but to the degradation and destruction of old-growth forests" by the timber industry, the society's Lauren Nolfo-Clements said in a statement.

A representative of timber owners and forest product manufacturers said research since the spotted owl's listing has changed assumptions: The bird has more breeding pairs than thought, and needs a variety of forest conditions, not just old-growth, to survive.

"We believe the recovery plan must provide land managers with the flexibility to adapt as habitat conditions change across the landscape," said Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council, in a statement.

A lawsuit from the timber group led the Fish and Wildlife Service to work on the recovery plan.

The "flexibility" is in an option that would allow local managers of federal agencies to set the boundaries of owl reserves. DellaSala charged that the flexibility was put in the plan on the orders of departmental higher-ups as a step toward doing away with protections for the owl in the Northwest Forest Plan, the Clinton-era document that reduced the cut on federal forests.

Ren Lohoefener, director of the service's Pacific Region, said at a media briefing Thursday he didn't recall who introduced the "flexibility" idea, but said the spotted owl would continue to be protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery said there was nothing untoward in the work of what was called the "Washington Oversight Committee," including officials such as Mark Rey of Agriculture and Lynn Scarlett of Interior.

He said the Endangered Species Act makes the interior secretary responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act, and it was logical for leaders of the agencies to give guidance.

"There's nothing wrong with that," he said. "That's the way our government works."

[rudy654-2009]

Sometimes I just can't understand where these people get their education. It makes one doubt the institutions that can produce such stupidity. Why not kill butterflies to save the bees? It makes about as much sense.

[petesis]

This backwoods campfire is burning as this game warden approaches out of the dark. The Ranger hails the ragged old man hunched over what is unmistakeably the remains of a roasted Northern Spotted Owl.
The Ranger is aghast. He tells the old man, "Hey, Old Man, those birds are protected. Don't ya know that?"
The old man replies. "I live out here in the woods. I eat what I can catch." The ranger says "The penalty for killin one of them birds is 2 years in prison and a 500,000.00 fine. The old man is shaking as he says "Sir,I didn't know that owl was anything special. I promise I won't do it again sir". The ranger looks at the poor old man and feels pity. He says to the man "Ol timer, just this once I am gonna let this slide. But tell me one thing... I have always wanted to know myself, .. What did that spotted owl taste like?"...
The old man thought for a second or two and replied..."sorta like a cross between whooping crane and Ivory Billed woodpecker."

[mikealford3]

Petesis,

I heard the same story but the old man in mine said the owl tasted kinda like a bald eagle but just not a sweet.

Never under estimate the foolishness that is our government. The U.S. Navy, with much resistence, is going to build an outlying landing field for their jets to practice landing and taking off here in eastern N.C. This "OLF" is going to be built within a few miles of 2 very sensative National Wildlife Refugees. Lake Mattamuskeet and Pocosin Lakes NWRs. These NWRs are wintering homes to millions of migratory birds including various ducks, tundra swans, geese and other birds. The residents have argued that the millions of birds that winter in the area pose a great threat to the jets flying in and have asked the Navy not to build it.

The navy has decided that because of the danger posed by the migratory birds, they, the navy, is going to intentinally poison the geese, swans and ducks with Avitrol and other chemicals as a way to control the bird population. Mind you, avitrol is illegal for use in N.C. and is prohibited by federal law for use in controling migratory birds anywhere.

This is the intelligence of our government at it's best.

[jscribe58]

No animal should be allowed to go away like it never existed, but we have heard stories about spotted owls and their protection for quite a few years now. It's hard to understand the efforts made to protect an animal with little significance to our environment, while other more significant animals have disappeared with little or no effort to protect them.

Here in Florida, we are going through a horror of barn owls whose food supply has dwindled because of woodlands that have disappeared because of new homes being built. We're going through a rash of the owls hunting house cats for food, all of them pets. We lost one of our cats recently, and suspect it was taken by a barn owl. As far as I know, an owls usefulness to society is that rodents are it's main diet, therefore keeping vermin count down. But when their usefulness to the environment disappears, they need to migrate to areas that are still wooded instead of eating our pets. Cats have always been popular pets in my neighborhood, and would often be seen lying in the sun in front of homes. Lately though, nary a one can be seen, so that food supply is dwindling. What will their next source of nourishment be?

[gunownerdan]

Not only does the government work hard to guarantee the DE-evolution of our own species, we are also working hard to ensure the DE-evolution of other species like owls too.
What a promising future for life on earth.(not)

[ecuadoriana]

Perhaps next they should consider killing off certain species of humans so as to protect the others, especially the rich, white, christians.

Oh wait. BushWhack is doing that right now.

Silly me.

[bhamchris]

Whatever happened to survival of the fitest? Liberals want evolution taught in schools, but don't want nature to take its own course. If this bird was meant to survive, it has to adapt to threats from predators on it's own.

[nothappyatall]

Everytime we meddle in this stuff it backfires, you can't protect one species by killing off scores of others i.e the cattle industry slaughtering off coyotes, wolves and hundreds of non target species with poisons both primary and secondary poisoning all because they want to run their dumb helpless sheep on remote public lands for free with no protection.

" We're going through a rash of the owls hunting house cats for food, all of them pets. We lost one of our cats recently, and suspect it was taken by a barn owl."

I suggest maybe you become a RESPONSIBLE pet owner and keep your cat INDOORS or in sight, can't be done? BS! my parents had cats in a NYC apartment who never went out except to the vet, they were happy, content, declawed, and lived on average 20 years each.
Blame yourself for the loss of your cats-you have a brain USE it and stop blaming everyone else- least of all wildlife for your lack of pet control.

[akrk33nnn]

The barred owl is not the spotted owl's "cousin", it is a different SPECIES, much like humans and chimpanzees are different species. This is typical of the misleading and factually incorrect reporting common among AP reporters over the last decade.

[the_quietman]

Natural selection should not be stopped. If an animal is going extinct and we want to preserve it for our own indulgence then it should be taken OUT of the wild because that is what nature is doing. If you want to protect your barn cats then keep dogs so the owls, wildcats and other feral creatures wont come near them. I lost a kitten to a hawk once and my dogs now set up a racket as soon as they see ANY large birds or other predators around. That's what dogs are for.

[hawksprings]

I wonder what wine goes best with barred owl?
I looked on the PETA website, but they didn't say.
(That's PETA: People for the Eating of Tasty Animals)

[cfin5]

Owls are the absolute coolest bird in the sky. I cant believe the authorities would even suggest such a policy. It is too bad what is happening to the spotted owl, but I dont care to put a logger (head of household) out of work like what happened in the past. Those guys have families who depend on them. I'll take the pleasure of seeing any owl in the wild over protecting a pet cat anytime. Besides, the owls real danger is probably something else like too many houses, pesticides, widfires, or all of them combined.

One thing is certain, if the Bush Administration is putting out an idea, it is to be viewed with the utmost suspicion!!! This group is the most incompetent, reckless bunch we have had in power in my lifetime.
And the idea that if owls can't adapt, they should go the way of the dinosaurs. We should do everything we can to insure the survival of as many species as possible because the ecosystem is interlocked...the demise of huge numbers of species will, in the end, mean the demise of humans. We can't act as a parasite on this planet with no regard for the rest of nature. It is suicidal!

[gunownerdan]

sesanders1 said:
"We should do everything we can to insure the survival of as many species as possible because the ecosystem is interlocked...the demise of huge numbers of species will, in the end, mean the demise of humans. We can't act as a parasite on this planet with no regard for the rest of nature. It is suicidal!"

The human species will not last forever. What's going on with the owls right now could be the same thing that happened with humans and neanderthals.
Why prevent evolution by trying to save spotted owls from their cousins?
Capture the ones we have left and put them in zoos. We can breed them in the zoos and maybe sell them as extinct(in the wild) pets.

[gunownerdan]

By the way, SHAME ON THOSE RETARDED BIOLOGISTS for killing some owls to "save" other owls.
Capture the owls you don't like and move them far away, don't F'ing kill them!

[gunownerdan]

By the way, SHAME ON THOSE RETARDED BIOLOGISTS for killing some owls to "save" other owls.
Capture the owls you don't like and move them far away, don't F'ing kill them!

[gunownerdan]

By the way, SHAME ON THOSE RETARDED BIOLOGISTS for killing some owls to "save" other owls.
Capture the owls you don't like and move them far away, don't F'ing kill them!

[gunownerdan]

By the way, the only way to protect an endangered species is to protect its habitat. This is biology 101!

[the_quietman]

If we are causing an extinction then by all means we should rectify the error. However, if we are NOT the cause then nature should take it's course. Evolution takes place by natural selection, let things evolve on their own. If we feel that we must keep some alive then it needs to be done in an artificial environment in isolation from nature to prevent manipulation.

[atpay1]

The idiot that thought up the plan to shoot one species to save the other is obviously a Bush compassionate, conservative, brainless, twit! When you think you've heard it all you haven't !

[misssy4]

Please alert *** Cheney when the killing begins. He certainly will fill the quota for dead owls and anything else that has fin, feather, fur or oil.

[rf35]

"They kind of stood the science on its head,"

Is anyone surprised? We're talking abut the Bush administration, remember. The problem with the barred owl is that it is not a native species, but on introduced (unintentionally) by human action. Therefore, this is NOT natural selection in action! The barred owl would be considered an invasive species encroaching on a native species' habitat. While I don't especially like the plan to kill them, I'm not sure there is any viable alternative. Capturing and relocating them would be a massively expensive endeavor and may not be enough to have a significant impact on their numbers.

akrk33nnn,
The term %u201Ccousin,%u201D in the context of this article, is not inappropriate. In the taxonomical nomenclature of these species, they are closely related. Both are of the genus Strix, and are therefore even more closely related than humans and chimps; more along the lines of **** neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) and **** sapiens (us).