When Owls Settled the West

 NBC reports that "To protect an endangered owl species, government biologists propose killing off other owls." You might remember from two or three decades ago how the timber industry in much of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California was shut down because it was absolutely necessary to save the spotted owl from extinction. Well, like most things we hear from environmentalists and the government, it was a lie. It wasn't the logging but the spread of barred owls that is driving the spotted owns to extinction. But when you are as heavy handed as the government, you have to smash quite a few eggs before you get one that doesn't have a bunch of egg shell fragments and can actually be used to make an omelet. 

    The article explains:

    The survival of one owl species hinges on the demise of another.

    That’s what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service argues in its proposal to allow the agency to shoot hundreds of thousands of barred owls over the next 30 years in West Coast forests. The service says the barred owl, which is not native to the region, is crowding out the spotted owl, a close genetic relative.

    Without action against the barred owls, service biologists say the spotted owl could disappear from parts of Washington and Oregon within a few years and eventually go extinct.

* * *

    An undiscriminating eye might struggle to tell spotted and barred owls apart. Both have pale faces and brown-and-white mottled coats. They are in the same genus. Before the 20th century, a major differentiating factor was where they lived: the barred owl in the Eastern U.S. and the spotted owl in the forests of the U.S. West. 

    But the barred owl is slightly bigger, quicker to reproduce, more aggressive and less discriminating about where it makes its home and what it eats.

    Spotted owl populations have declined by about 75% in the past two decades and continue to decline about 5% each year, largely because of barred owls, according to an environmental impact statement describing the USFWS proposal. The proposal says there are more than 100,000 barred owls in forests on the West Coast.

    “They come into these areas. They reach high densities. They’re basically eating everything and competing with spotted owls for food,” said David Wiens, a supervisory research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

    The USFWS' proposed management plan calls for killing barred owls across about one-third of the spotted owl range in Washington, Oregon and California over three decades. The plan would remove the barred owl from 1%-2% of its current range.

    Crews of trained shooters would broadcast an owl call, attracting those nearby. Then, equipped with spotlights and shotguns, they would kill the birds.

In other words, because the spotted owl is less adaptable than the barred owl, evolution has selected it for extinction. 

    If you want a political metaphor, Americans are the barred owl, Leftists are the spotted owl, and the government is ... well, the government is still the government.