Fed plan to kill owls to save other owls gets pushback from WA lands commissioner

(The Center Square) – Washington Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz is urging federal officials to put the brakes on a plan to kill hundreds of thousands of barred owls in the Pacific Northwest as a means of protecting the threatened northern spotted owl.

Franz, who is running for Congress, sent a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last week saying she is concerned about “unintended consequences” of the plan "given the scale of the overlapping habitat for barred owls and spotted owls.”

Barred owls are bigger, more aggressive and more territorial than the northern spotted owl.

In a video posted on YouTube Franz said, “I understand the risk that the barred owl poses. The explosive growth of this species across the Pacific Northwest threatens the food supply, habitat and sustainability of the spotted owl.”

She went on to say, “Having said that, I don’t believe a decades long plan of killing nearly a half million barred owls across 14 million acres represents a solution that is absolutely viable, affordable or achievable."

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service notes barred owls are prolific hunters that decades ago moved beyond their traditional range in the eastern part of America and into western forests.

This pits them against northern spotted owls, which became the poster "animal" for balancing wildlife interests with logging Northwest forests in the 1980s and 1990s.

Washington designated the spotted owl as endangered in 1988 and the federal government listed the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990.

Franz said killing off one species to protect another can’t be the only solution.

“I don’t believe a decades long plan of killing nearly a half million barred owls across 14 million acres represents a solution that is absolutely viable, affordable or achievable,” said Franz. “How can U.S. Fish and Wildlife guarantee that only barred owls will be targeted?” questioned Franz. “How can we prevent the surviving barred owls from simply repopulating and recolonizing the areas?”

Franz has yet to receive a response from Haaland's office regarding her request to meet and discuss the barred owl culling plan.