Next year, U.S. wildlife officials will step up efforts to remove invasive barred owls that are jeopardizing the survival of native owls in West Coast forests. Under a newly finalized plan, trained shooters will target barred owls over the next 30 years, covering up to 23,000 square miles in California, Oregon, and Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aims to eliminate up to 452,000 barred owls to halt the decline of northern and California spotted owls.
The strategy of killing one bird species to save another has sparked a debate among wildlife advocates. It echoes past government initiatives, such as culling sea lions and cormorants to protect West Coast salmon and eradicating cowbirds to save endangered warblers. This particular effort could become one of the largest predator control operations involving birds of prey.
Barred owls, originally native to eastern North America, began appearing in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s. They have since displaced many smaller spotted owls that require larger territories. An estimated 100,000 barred owls now inhabit regions that host only about 7,100 spotted owls, according to federal data. The arrival of barred owls also threatens frog and salamander populations.
“It’s not just one owl versus one owl,” explained David Wiens, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist who concluded a barred owl removal study in 2020. “Because of their predatory behavior, they are basically eating anything in the forest, including amphibians, small mammals, and other bird species.”
Government officials believe that experimental barred owl removals, including on Northern California’s Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, have demonstrated the strategy’s potential to halt the decline of spotted owls. However, researchers caution that few spotted owls remain in some areas, and reversing the barred owls’ aggressive spread may take years.
Former Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Kent Livezey criticized the plan, suggesting it could cost hundreds of dollars per bird. He argued that intervening in natural competitions by killing large numbers of animals is misguided. “We should let nature take its course,” he wrote in an email.
The wildlife service will delegate the task to government agencies, landowners, tribes, or companies, who will need to document their training in owl identification and firearm use. “We’re still going to have barred owls in the West. This is really just about trying to prevent the extinction of spotted owls,” said Fish and Wildlife Service Oregon state supervisor Kessina Lee. She did not provide a cost estimate, noting that it would depend on the involvement of other agencies and land managers.
Northern spotted owls are federally protected as a threatened species, while California spotted owls are pending federal protection. Researchers believe barred owls reached the Pacific Northwest through the Great Plains, where settlers’ tree plantings provided new habitats, or via Canada’s boreal forests, which have become more hospitable due to climate change.
The barred owl invasion has undermined decades of spotted owl restoration efforts that primarily focused on habitat protection. Logging restrictions under former President Bill Clinton, which temporarily slowed the spotted owl’s decline, are now seen as insufficient given the barred owl’s spread.
Wayne Pacelle of Animal Wellness Action criticized the plan as a distraction from the broader logging threats. He argued that the term “invasive species” is misused when animals are migrating due to climate change and other human impacts. “It’s ludicrous to think animals are going to stay in some historical range,” he said.
Due to their territorial nature, barred owls are relatively easy to target. Shooters use megaphones to play recorded owl calls, luring the birds close to roads where they are shot. “The birds will come right in. They’re very focused on this recording,” Wiens noted. “If we go into a site and detect a barred owl, we have over a 95% chance of removing that barred owl.”
Alternative methods such as capturing and euthanizing barred owls, collecting eggs, or using non-lethal hazing were considered but deemed too costly or impractical. Approximately 4,500 barred owls have been killed on the West Coast since 2009.
On the Hoopa reservation, tribal wildlife biologist Mark Higley has removed over 800 birds, conducting operations primarily on his own. “The problem has been we get like 60 to 100 new barred owls each year,” he explained. “Barred owls are a magnificent species. I just would really like to see them where they’re native and not invasive.”
