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A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers is asking the Trump administration to cancel a controversial plan to kill up to nearly half a million banned owls to protect vulnerable northern spotted owls.
Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved plans to film owls in California, Oregon and Washington for 30 years. In a letter to Home Secretary Doug Burgham on March 7, 19 US representatives, including Sydney Kamlager Dove (D-Los Angeles), said the strategy would cost around $1.35 billion.
“In the spirit of financial responsibility and ethical conservation, we urge all expenditures on this plan to kill a large number of north owl seeds that expand the range of natives,” said a letter co-led by Kamlager Dove and Rep. Troy E. Nairs (R-Texas).
Supporters of the strategy, including federal wildlife officials and well-known scientists, believe that discarding it will have disastrous consequences for spotted northern owls that have suffered a sharp decline, as the owls are muscular from the territory. A recent survey also estimates that the cost of the plan is much lower than the lofty figures cited by lawmakers.
“We are at risk of losing one of the signature species of old growing forests in the Pacific Northwest,” said Noah Greenwald, director of endangered species at the Center for Biodiversity, a conservation group.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior said the agency had not commented on Congress’s correspondence but would carefully check the letter.
The bared owl and spotted owl look similar, and birds can even breed. But the bar-covered owl, originally from the Eastern US, is more aggressive and the louder they are about food, the faster they can recreate and beat their fellow raptors.
The banned owls are considered the highest threat to the northern spotted owls that are widely distributed in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. If bared owls extensions are left unchecked, some experts believe they will destroy the spotted California owls that live in mature forests in central and southern California.
However, some animal welfare groups and lawmakers say shooting thousands of banned owls is not the solution, citing moral reasons in addition to potential costs.
“As a conservative, I think it’s contradictory to kill one species to preserve another species,” Kamlager Dove said in a statement. “And as an animal lover, I cannot support the widespread massacre of these beautiful creatures.”
Other lawmakers who signed the letter to the Secretary of the Interior include Rep. Josh Harder (D-Stockton) and Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.).
A California spotted owl was photographed in 2009 at San Gabriel National Monument in Angels National Forest.
(Amberkley/USFS)
The letter lawmakers also questioned the workability of the plan. They said the government “implemented a successful wildlife management program,” and there was no precedent on the vast scale of approved plans.
However, Greenwald said there is extensive pilot study on the removal of functioning owls. He pointed to other examples of successful animal management programs, including locking up brown-headed cowbirds to benefit small bell vireo and small endangered birds.
The Center for Animal Wellness Action and the Humanitarian Economy sued in U.S. District Court in Seattle to stop plans to kill owls. Another animal welfare group has launched a similar lawsuit in Oregon.
The plan’s $100 million cited by lawmakers will hunt around 1,500 banned owls over four years, from a $4.5 million contract awarded to Native American tribes in Northern California last year.
“Prices in this political environment are a big fat target,” said Wayne Pasel, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for Humanitarian Economics. Pasel resolved the plan, appealing to the efficiency of the so-called government led by Elon Musk, who led many of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts.
However, a 2024 research paper concluded that removing barred owls in the northern spotted owl range costs between $4.5 million and $12 million per year in the early stages, and is likely to decrease over time. At $12 million a year, the 30-year plan will run $360 million.
Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Information Center, said he is helping to curb the banned owl population and is not the only federal government that drafts the bill.
“This is a collaborative process between multiple civilian, state, federal and tribal entities, which will allow costs to spread across multiple different entities,” he said. His group intervened in two lawsuits against the federal government defending the plan.
Over the past few weeks, federal job cuts have knocked down owl investigations in northern and California. Conservationists say data is needed to protect the Raptor.
Federal lands still contain only 3,000 spotted owls to the north. Brown birds of prey with white spots are described as being threatened under California and the federal Endangered Species Species Act.
Spotted owls in California are also in decline. In 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that separate Southern California populations be listed as endangered under federal law. The Sierra Nevada population was recommended due to its threat.
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