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Officials on the West Coast are preparing to cull hundreds of thousands of barred owls to save another species of the bird.
The proposal comes as part of the Barred Owl Management Strategy developed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which is officially being implemented in the states of Washington, Oregon and California.
According to the strategy, which is based on years of research and studies, around 450,000 barred owls will be shot and killed over three decades. The intention is to save the Northern spotted owl, which is currently listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
According to the service, the 2011 Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan identified barred owls as one of the two primary threats to the survival and recovery of northern spotted owls. Habitat loss is the other.
The sprawling 330-page plan details how the barred owls will be directed towards “removal specialists” using megaphones playing digitally recorded owl calls – a combination of “single-note… and two-phrase hoots.”
The birds will be killed using shotguns and their carcasses would be buried on site, according to the plan. This will be one by placing the carcasses “under duff, branches, or logs to secure the carcass without disturbing the soil.”
“The location should be out of sight of roads, trails, or human habitation. If this is not possible or advisable, carcasses may be transported to an appropriate disposal facility,” according to the plan.
“If transported from the removal site, carcasses must be tightly double bagged to avoid spread of disease.”
The removal or killing of barred owls could start as early as this fall, but is intended to be fully implemented by next spring. Public hunting of barred owls will be prohibited during this time.
“All removal has to be done by trained removal specialists," Robin Bown, leader of barred owl management strategy development, told NBC. "Where firearms are not allowed or contraindicated – barred owls may be trapped and euthanized.”
In a record of its decision to remove the barred owls, the USFWS noted that its strategy best meets the purpose and needed action and “incorporates all practicable means to avoid or minimize environmental harm”
“The service does not reach this decision lightly,” the agency said.
"If we do nothing, we won’t have spotted owls," Bridget Moran, Deputy State Supervisor of the USFWS Oregon Office, told NBC. "If we do something, we will have both.”
