Plan to Cull 450,000 Barred Owls Proposed

U.S. wildlife officials have proposed a controversial plan to cull nearly 450,000 barred owls over the next 30 years to save the endangered northern and California spotted owls in Oregon, Washington, and California. The barred owls, which migrated from the eastern U.S., are outcompeting the smaller spotted owls, threatening their survival despite previous conservation efforts focused on habitat protection. The plan involves deploying trained shooters to lure and kill barred owls using recorded calls. This approach has divided wildlife advocates, with some supporting it as necessary for spotted owl survival, while others criticize it as reckless and a diversion from needed forest preservation efforts. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service argues that without this intervention, spotted owls will likely go extinct in most of their range.