Lawmakers ask Interior Sec. Burgum to halt plan to kill barred owls to protect spotted owls

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, led a bipartisan letter asking Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to block a plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to use “lethal removal” of barred owls, which are threatening northern and California spotted owls. 

According to the letter signed by 18 representatives, the plan has had no congressional oversight and its final environmental impact statement contained no meaningful cost estimates. 

After the spotted owl was listed as a threatened species in 1990 under the Endangered Species Act, the letter explains, the federal government limited logging on millions of acres of federal land in the Pacific Northwest. This led to no increase in spotted owl populations. The plan put forth by the FWS blames the declines in spotted owl populations on competition from the barred owl. 

“More than 260 stakeholder organizations are now on record in opposition to the plan, including animal welfare groups and 20 Audubon Society chapters. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers from range states have also weighed in and urged the federal government to nix the plan — the largest-ever raptor-killing scheme conceived by any nation,” the letter states. 

The $1.35 billion cost of the plan, the representatives argue, isn’t worth the outcomes. Similar programs haven’t had much success, and the barred owls are engaging in “core biological behavior” typical of such range-expanding species.