Saving the spotted owl means making hard choices about the barred owl

I have the unenviable duty to argue for lethally managing barred owls — charismatic and complex creatures to whom we owe consideration and respect, but which are also an invasive species wreaking havoc on West Coast forest ecosystems.

Native to eastern North America, barred owls are relative newcomers to West Coast forests. Their range expansion was likely the product of Euro-Canadian settlement and the subsequent habitat modification of the Great Plains. As a generalist apex predator that consumes a remarkable array of native mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds with whom it did not co-evolve, barred owls have become hyperabundant in many West Coast forests, and are causing disruptive, ecosystem-level effects best understood through the lens of the northern spotted owl.

The bigger, more aggressive barred owl displaces and prevents native spotted owls from reproducing. Where barred owl densities are highest, like in British Columbia and Washington, spotted owls are functionally extinct. And despite decades of progress in protecting spotted owl habitat, the species is still in perilous decline across its entire range.

Lethal barred owl removal experiments conducted across the range of the spotted owl have been shown to help struggling spotted owl populations recover. Based on these positive results, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proceeding with its barred owl management strategy, a new permitting plan that would allow land managers to more easily remove barred owls to benefit spotted owls and forest ecosystems. The plan uses data from barred owl removal experiments to focus management in areas most likely to save spotted owls and check the barred owl’s ongoing range expansion. With more barred owl removal, it is possible for spotted owls to recover from near extinction. And given the ecosystemic impacts of barred owls, removing them is also likely to benefit other sensitive wildlife species as well.

To prevent the extinction of the northern spotted owl, is killing barred owls really the only option? Yes. For over 20 years, scientists have studied if there is another way, and struck out. Because barred owls utilize the same habitat as spotted owls, more habitat won’t help. Nonlethal options, like reproductive control or captivity, are not meaningfully scalable, and using them anyway would waste precious conservation resources and hasten spotted owl extinction.

Is barred owl removal preferable to the extinction of the northern spotted owl? Again, yes. While barred owl removal is unpalatable, spotted owls evolved over eons and, absent intervention, will disappear from the planet in a matter of years. Species have intrinsic value, worthy of protection for their own sake, but are also valuable in relation to the broader web of life. Some have suggested that barred owls will simply replace spotted owls in the ecosystem, as they are “cousins,” both in the genus Strix. But it isn’t so simple — barred owls have the potential to disrupt entire West Coast forest ecosystems.

Spotted owls are the canary in the coal mine of West Coast forests — if they are not doing well, it is an indicator cautioning us that something is wrong. And something is desperately wrong. Other species, like the western screech owl, are also disappearing from the landscape in tandem with barred owl invasion. Many of the species commonly eaten by barred owls are poorly studied, so determining population trends is impossible. Scientists warn that the barred owl’s diverse diet and dense populations will likely place significant pressure on prey populations, triggering a “trophic cascade” that could unsettle entire ecosystems.

Delay and reconsideration of barred owl removal will only mean more suffering. Next year, the spotted owl will be closer to extinction and the barred owl more populous. Bold and strong intervention now will reduce the total number of barred owls that need to be taken and give the spotted owl its best chance at recovery. That’s why the conservation, scientific and environmental management community across the Pacific Northwest supports aggressive and timely barred owl removal.