Wildlife and People

Barred Owl Blasting Is Back

Yup, shotgun blasting of barred owls is back on the menu. The US Fish and Wildlife Service wants to blow the little birds to smithereens:

Fish and Wildlife Service Seeks Public Comments on Possible Experimental Removal of Barred Owls

USFWS News Release, Dec 9, 2009 [here]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced it is preparing an environmental analysis of possible experimental removal of barred owls from three areas in Oregon and Washington, to determine if the removal benefits northern spotted owls. The agency is seeking public comments on the scope of the analysis that should be carried out; that is, what are the biological, social, economic and environmental effects that should be studied before the agency decides whether to conduct the experiments. The announcement will be published in the Federal Register on December 10, 2009.

“We will decide whether to conduct experimental removal of barred owls only after this open, transparent review of the effects those experiments might have,” said Paul Henson, the Fish and Wildlife Service supervisor in Oregon. “Removing individuals of a common species to benefit a species in peril is something the Fish and Wildlife Service does when necessary, but we will not proceed with this experimental removal until we better understand – and document – the environmental effects of doing it.” …

We first reported this amazing story over two years ago [here]

Shoot to Kill: The Curse of the Spotted Owl, Part 3

SOS Forests, May 8th, 2007

The latest “solution” proposed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to the Spotted Owl Crisis is to arm Federal “biologists” with shotguns, send them onto public and private property, and have them blast away at owls.

That’s right, sports fans. The defective brain trust at USFWS plans to give loaded weapons to wackos, form owl death squads, and send them out here to shoot to kill owls.

In the name of the Environment!!!!

Get this: after 15 years of intense expert study (ha ha, that’s a laugh), after 15 years of an economic straightjacket strapped on millions of citizens, after 15 years of a half-trillion dollar forest set-aside program, the architects of “owl biology” are punting.

They don’t have a clue about spotted owls, or the hope of a clue, and so have devolved their “owl biology” into a nightmare of pointless violence and owl murder. …

And [here]

Barred Owl “Science”

SOS Forests, June 4th, 2007

The Draft Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl calls for the shotgun blasting of barred owls. The reason given is that barred owls are killers of spotted owls.

Or are they? On what basis is this allegedly scientific statement made?

Guess what? None at all. It’s pure conjecture, and pretty iffy conjecture at that. No one has ever in history seen a barred owl kill a spotted owl.

The best the USFWS can come up is “circumstantial evidence indicated that a barred owl killed a spotted owl (Leskiw and Gutiérrez, 1998)” (DRP, p. 125). The citation for this obscure 1998 report is Leskiw, T. and R.J. Gutiérrez. 1998. Possible predation of a spotted owl by a barred owl. Western Birds 29:225–226.

At one time, in one place, ten years ago, somebody thought they saw something, but it wasn’t the actual thing, only some signs of something or other, which nobody else saw, then or ever.

That’s it. Upon that one shred of obscure “evidence” the Pacific Northwest is to be an experimental killing ground for barred owls.

Upon that shred of who really knows what, the barred owl has been condemned to extinction for allegedly causing the crash of spotted owl populations.

Upon that shred of nothing the Northwest Forest Plan, a colossal failure in every respect, is to be carved in stone and the resident human population subjected to 30 more years (at least) of pain and suffering. …

And [here]

The Curse of the Spotted Owl, Part 3

SOS Forests, April 29th, 2007

The NWFP had (has) four fundamental goals. It has failed spectacularly to meet any.

1. The NWFP has failed to protect northern spotted owls

By most estimations, the northern spotted owl population has fallen 40 to 60 percent since Inception. The decline may be due to displacement of the spotted owl by the barred owl in some forests. Barred owls are virtually identical to spotted owls, except they have bars on their breasts instead of spots. Another reason for the population decline may be that millions of acres of spotted owl habitat have been catastrophically burned to smithereens.

2. The NWFP has failed to protect spotted (or barred) owl habitat

Since Inception, millions of acres of spotted owl habitat have been wiped off the face of the earth by holocaust, and replaced by tick brush. The specific forest incinerations include the Biscuit Fire, B&B, Clark, Apple, Tiller, Warner Creek, Winter Rim, Skunk, Flagtail, Timbered Rock, Sims, Monument, Toolbox, Davis, Eyerley, Black Crater, Mt. Hood Complex, and on and on and on. Moreover, because these Burns will never be replanted, restored, or rehabilitated, permanent fire-type brush fields now occupy land that was formerly spotted owl forest.

3. The NWFP has failed to preserve habitat continuity throughout the range of the northern spotted owl

The dozens of huge and catastrophic forest fires have left giant gaps in the range. The Biscuit Burn alone is 50 miles long and 20 miles wide.

4. The NWFP has failed to protect the regional economy

Since Inception, Oregon has experienced 13 long years of the worst economy in the U.S., with the highest rates of unemployment, bankruptcy, home foreclosure, and hunger of any state. These are not just statistics, but indicators of real human suffering. Over 40,000 workers lost their jobs, and the rural economy has been Appalachian ever since. (This is somewhat of an insult to Appalachia, which has been doing much better economically than Oregon.) …

And [here]

Announcing BOB Corps — Barred Owl Blasters, Incorporated

SOS Forests, June 4th, 2007

Our motto, “You Hoot ‘Em, We Shoot ‘Em.”

BOB Corps is the world’s foremost eradicator of pest wildlife like those lousy barred owls. We do what normal people would never even think of doing.

BOB Corps possesses just about every small armament known to Man, from handguns to rifles to shotguns to compound bows, slingshots, atlatls (see here), baseball bats, tennis rackets, a catapult, and larger pieces as well, which we cannot discuss herein due to internal corporate security rules. …

That last one was a little tongue-in-cheek. But we weren’t far from the reality of the situation [here]:

Like a Redneck Sport

Wildlife and People, 10 Jan 2008

The barred owl blasting we predicted [here, here, here, here, here] has already begun. Self-described and alleged “biologists” and “researchers” have been driving around Northern California shooting owls with shotguns from the back of pickup trucks.

From the Oregonian yesterday:

Shooting one owl to save another

A scientist says it’s an easy, inexpensive way to get rid of barred owls and help spotted owls

Michael Milstein, The Oregonian Staff, Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Biologists grappled Tuesday with the realities of shooting barred owls that invade the older forest habitat of federally protected northern spotted owls, a strategy critics say the Bush administration employs to help spotted owls while also trimming away at their preserves in an effort to open up logging.

A scientist who experimented with barred owl control in Northern California said it proved relatively easy, at least in limited areas of accessible forests, and removing some adult barred owls before nesting season could control the broader population and open a window for spotted owls to come back.

The cost would be relatively minor, Lowell Diller, a biologist with Green Diamond Resource Co. in Northern California, told researchers meeting Tuesday in Portland. He cautioned he wasn’t trying to make light of it, but said, “This is almost like a redneck sport — you do it from the tail of your pickup.” …

Science marches on. Or else it’s committing senseless drive-by shootings. Hard to say which …

Some background: the northern spotted owl was listed as endangered species in 1990. Finally, 18 years later, a recovery plan was presented in May 2008 after the USFWS was forced to do so by court order. The reason given by the USFWS for NOT creating a recovery plan in all those years, something required within 3 years of listing under the Endangered Species Act, was that the Northwest Forest Plan satisfied that requirement.

The Northwest Forest Plan has been a catastrophic failure. Spotted owl populations have declined 60 percent or more, old-growth habitat has been incinerated in megafires, and the economy of the region, especially the rural economy, has been decimated. Absolutely no good has come from the Northwest Forest Plan. The years of suffering and tragedy associated have been a monumental waste.

A draft spotted owl recovery plan was proposed by the USFWS over two years ago, but withdrawn after wide criticisms. The USFWS got that message. In the final NSORP (northern spotted owl recovery plan) issued in May, 2008, the USFWS okayed the use of judicious thinning to save owl forests from destruction by holocaust.

Those plans were created with full compliance to NEPA, APA, and other applicable federal laws. Years of public involvement, public hearings, and public comments were considered, as well as years of scientific investigation and analysis. The procedures followed in creating the rules were exhaustive, comprehensive, and rigorous in the extreme.

Then Obama was elected, and as one of his first acts as President he had his new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, throw the NSORP out last July. The Obama Administration lifted their hind leg and peed all over the extensive public involvement and collaboration.

So now the owl situation is back in Limbo. The USFWS has been politically denutted. Their only option is to revive barred owl blasting, something Obama, Salazar, and the eco-terrorism lobby yearn for.

Barred Owls Targeted In Experiment To Help Threatened Spotted Owl

BY TOM BANSE, OPB News, December 9, 2009 [here]

Barred owls are a bigger, more aggressive cousin of the spotted owl. They are expanding their range in the West.

Many biologists see a correlation with declining spotted owl numbers.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in charge of saving the iconic spotted owl.

Portland-based spokesman Phil Carroll says the agency wants to know what you think about killing some the rival barred owls in an experiment.

Phil Carroll: “If some barred owls are removed from some areas and NOT removed from other areas, then you can observe the effects and make basically a science-based conclusion about what’s going on between the two species.”

Carroll’s agency is meeting with regional environmental groups in hopes of winning their support. He says agency scientists have not decided whether to remove barred owls by shooting, trapping, or some other means.

The number of barred owls to target also is up in the air. …

Barred owls could get the boot (or a bullet) to save spotted owls

By Matthew Preusch, The Oregonian, December 09, 2009 [here]

Should we kill barred owls to save the northern spotted owl, and can it work?

The U.S. government, facing ongoing decline in protected spotted owl numbers, wants to try ridding the woods of some of its bigger and more aggressive cousins, the barred owl.

That might mean shooting them, trapping them and moving them out, or some other technique. And if the experiment works, it could be expanded across the Pacific Northwest for years to come.

“The decision to kill large number of barred owls for an extended period is fraught with ethical issues, and the decision to let the spotted owl go extinct is fraught with ethical issues,” said Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Portland Audubon Society.

“We’re stuck between two evils.”

Though Audubon, Sallinger said, would err on the side of avoiding extinction. …

Experiment in Northwest could test if killing barred owl helps protected spotted owl

by JEFF BARNARD, AP Environmental Writer, LA Times, December 10, 2009 [here]

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Scientists want to determine if killing the aggressive barred owl that has invaded old growth forests of the Northwest would help the protected spotted owl.

Federal biologists are doing a formal study to decide whether to do the experiment, and laying out the terms if they go ahead. The study will be available for public comment and is expected to be completed by fall 2010.

“This is to be done experimentally so we can nail down whether, in fact, removing barred owls could improve spotted owl demographics, and also to look into the feasibility of doing that,” Fish and Wildlife biologist Robin Bown, who is overseeing the evaluation, said Wednesday.

He said a small-scale experiment with killing barred owls in northern California in 2005 created an uproar so Fish and Wildlife held meetings with interest groups to consider the ethical and moral implications of a larger experiment, and secured their agreement to look into an experiment.

“There is a range of opinions” among scientists and interest groups, said Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Portland Audubon Society, who took part in the ethical discussion. “We are still struggling with where we come down.” …

The Odd Barners are struggling with their ethics. To blast or not to blast, that is the question.

Your input is not wanted, but you can shoot it at them anyway:

Information or comments may be sent to Field Supervisor, Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office, 2600 S.E. 98th Ave., Suite 100, Portland, OR 97266, or faxed to 503-231-6195. Please identify all comments or information as pertaining to the barred owl EIS. Comments should be received by close of business on Monday, January 11, 2010.

So if you don’t have anything to do between now and Christmas, you might want to let the USFWS know what you think about their barred owl blasting plan. For whatever your opinion might be worth, which is less than nothing in today’s political climate.