Wildlife Officials Plan to Cull Nearly Half a Million Barred Owls to Protect Spotted Owls

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed culling nearly half a million invasive barred owls in Washington state, Oregon, and California over the next three decades to protect native spotted owls from possible extinction. “Barred owl management is not about one owl versus another,” Fish and Wildlife Service Oregon’s state supervisor Kessina Lee said in a statement. “Without actively managing barred owls, northern spotted owls will likely go extinct in all or the majority of their range, despite decades of collaborative conservation efforts.” The agency said its proposal, published on July 3, would result in the annual removal of less than 0.5 percent of the current North American barred owl population....