To save spotted owls, a new plan paints a target on barred owls

The eastern owls have made the Pacific Northwest home at the expense of native species

Pretty problem: Barred owls aren’t always as attractive as they seem. Photo: Mark Musselman/USFWS archive

By Kendra Chamberlain. December 13, 2023. Barred owls have migrated across the country and made the Pacific Northwest home over the past 50 years.

Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wants to cull thousands of the large birds in the region in hopes of saving a cousin: the beleaguered northern spotted owl.

Announced in November, the management plan proposes the birds be lured with recorded “who cooks for you” owl calls, and that agency hunters shoot the birds that show up.

FWS hopes to remove between 10,00-20,000 owls per year if the plan is approved. FWS is currently accepting public comments on the proposal.

In the 1990s, when the northern spotted owl was officially listed as threatened, experts believed logging to be the raptors’ greatest threat to survival—spotted owls are considered old growth forest obligates, meaning their habitat and survival is tied to the preservation of old growth forests with large, mature trees.

But even after a massive overhaul of land management and logging practices aimed at protecting the birds, northern spotted owl populations have steadily declined, and are now nearing a point of no return.

In the United States, northern spotted owl populations have declined over 65% since the 1990s. In British Columbia, only a single female remains in the wild.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the northern spotted owl is in an emergency situation, according to Joe Leibezeit, assistant director of statewide conservation at Portland Audubon

“There is a real possibility of the northern spotted owl going extinct in vast portions of its range,” Leibezeit told Columbia Insight. “Therefore we reluctantly support some level of lethal removal of barred owls in some critical places for the short term until better management options are available.”

Displacing spotted owls

Barred owls are native to the northeast but began expanding their range over the last half century. No one is sure exactly why.

Researchers believe European settlers—and their habits of meddling with the ecosystems they explored—are likely culprits.

The emergence of trees in towns and neighborhoods in places like Kansas and Nebraska allowed the barred owl to hop across what was previously a natural prairie border to their habitat, according to David Weins, supervisory research wildlife biologist at the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center in Corvallis. Weins has authored a number of studies on northern spotted owls.

“Unlike spotted owls, barred owls are commonly found in urbanized settings. Downtown Portland and my backyard in the middle of Corvallis are examples,” Weins told Columbia Insight in an email. 

The extirpation of bison and beaver by settlers, and the legacy of fire suppression across the country, also helped the barred owl expand its range.

Their arrival has pushed spotted owls to the brink.

Gif: USGS

Barred owls are larger, more competitive and more territorial than spotted owls.

They will establish territory in forests and then protect that territory, often aggressively.

“There is evidence that barred owls physically exclude [chase] spotted owls from their old-forest territories,” Weins said.

Researchers have recorded anecdotes of barred owls attacking and killing spotted owls.

Barred owls also reproduce faster than spotted owls; in addition, the two species are close enough to interbreed, creating owl hybrids that may or may not survive the FWS’s culling program.

Studies have consistently shown that removing barred owls from spotted owl territory is effective.

One study found spotted owls returned to their territory just one year after a group of barred owls were removed.

While there’s consensus that killing one owl to save another is an uncomfortable solution, lethal removal of barred owls is “the only population reduction method that is proven to work in reducing barred owl populations,” according to FWS’s management plan, unfortunate as that may be for the barred owls.

Columbia Insight’s reporting on biodiversity in the Columbia River Basin is supported by the Autzen Foundation.