Several Oregon lawmakers are calling on the incoming administration to nix a plan to kill nearly half a million barred owls on the West Coast, citing the cost and infeasibility.
In a letter sent …
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Several Oregon lawmakers are calling on the incoming administration to nix a plan to kill nearly half a million barred owls on the West Coast, citing the cost and infeasibility.
In a letter sent Tuesday, the lawmakers said the federal plan that calls for specially trained hunters to kill 450,000 barred owls over 30 years would cost $1.35 billion – or $45 million per year – and is “thoroughly impractical.”
The letter was addressed to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the heads of Trump’s recently formed Department of Government Efficiency.
“It just cannot work, and it won’t work. It is a budget buster,” four lawmakers wrote. Those who signed the letter were Reps. Ed Diehl, R-Dexter, David Gomberg, D-Otis, Virgle Osborne, R-Roseburg, and Sen.-elect Bruce Starr, R-Hillsboro.
The owl kill plan, finalized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in September and set to launch this spring, is meant to reduce food and habitat competition between barred owls and their rapidly declining cousins, the Northern and California spotted owls. The spotted owl was listed under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species in 1990 after it lost much of its habitat to old-growth logging.
The cost estimate comes from the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action, two animal welfare groups based in the Washington, D.C., area. It’s based on a recent grant of $4.5 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to the Hoopa Valley Tribe to kill 1,500 of the barred owls. That’s $3,000 per bird.
In addition to the exorbitant costs, finding thousands of individuals who will volunteer to kill the owls and compensating them is unrealistic, the lawmakers said.
Dozens of animal rights and wildlife protection organizations have previously argued the plan should be reversed because it could result in the wrong owls being shot, would disrupt nesting behaviors and lead to a never-ending treadmill of killing. Barred owls are also protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The groups have advocated for nonlethal means to protect the spotted owls, including safeguarding their habitat.
Killing one species to save another has become a more frequent approach to save dwindling species in recent years. Similar efforts include killing sea lions and cormorants to save salmon and killing cowbirds to save warblers.
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