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Rep. Troy E. Nairs, a Republican from Texas, was supported by 17 co-sponsors from both parties and introduced a resolution Wednesday that could mark the end of a plan to protect spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest. The plan calls for about 450,000 Burleigh Owls to be filmed over 30 years in California, Oregon and Washington.
Spotted owls are decreasing rapidly. The patched north owl is listed as being threatened under California and the US Endangered Species Act laws, with only 3,000 remaining on federal land. Federal Wildlife officials are proposing protection for endangered species as two California populations have found owls.
In a statement, NEHLS called the plan to culling owls approved by the US Fish and Wildlife Service under the Biden administration “a “hard-earned tax waste of Americans.” He estimated that it would cost $1.35 billion to hunt around 1,500 banned owls over four years, under a $4.5 million contract awarded to Hooper Valley tribes in northern California last year. That’s about $3,000 per owl.
The bipartisan alliance says killing owls is inhumane and infeasible. According to the NEHLS office, the co-sponsors of the resolution are made up of 11 Republicans and six Democrats, including three California representatives, Josh Harder (D-Tracy), Adam Gray (D-Merced) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles).
This combination of photos from 2003 and 2006 shows the spotted owl on the left and the Burred owl in East Burke, Virginia, in Deschute National Forest near Camp Sherman, Oregon.
(Don Ryan and Steve Reguet / Associated Press)
The effort utilizes the Congressional Review Act, a tool that is sometimes adopted under the new presidential administration to reverse rules issued by federal agencies in the last month of previous administrations. In late May, the government’s Accountability Office concluded that the plan was subject to the law.
To suspend plans to culling owls, both Congressional rooms must pass a joint majority resolution, and President Trump must sign it. If successful, the resolution prevents fish and wildlife services from pursuing similar rules unless expressly permitted by the Congress.
The plan is already facing a set-up. In May, federal authorities cancelled three related grants totaling more than $1.1 million, including one study that removed owls from more than 192,000 acres in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Another would have removed them from the Mendocino National Forest.
Some scientists and parents say that dismantling the plan means the end of the patchy owl to the north. Dark brown birds of prey, with bright white spots, prefer ancient forests. It became a central symbol of the so-called timber wars of the 1980s and 1990s, with environmentalists and logging interests fighting over the fate of old forests in the Pacific Northwest. Barred owls are slightly larger, more aggressive and too loud when it comes to habitat and food.
“If we don’t move forward with owl removal, it means extinction of patched owls in the north and extinction of spotted owls in California,” Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Information Center, told The Times last week. He pointed to a long-term field experiment showing stable spotted owl populations in areas where owls were killed.
Barred Owls was born in eastern North America and expanded west along with European settlers who planted trees and suppressed fires, biologists believe. Government scientists consider the existence of owls in the Pacific Northwest to be invasive, but some argue that it is an extension of natural scope.
“While protecting spotted owls is essential, attacking other wildlife occupying the same forest is not an ethical or practical measure,” said Wayne Pasel, president of Animal Wellness Action and president of the Center for Humanitarian Economics for the Humanitarian Economy.
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