U.S. Fish Service Proposes Shooting Barred Owls to Save Endangered Spotted Owl

In September 2024 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a Barred Owl Management Strategy that authorizes the lethal removal of up to 15,600 barred owls annually across Washington, Oregon and northern California for the next three decades, at an estimated cost of $1.35 billion. The effort targets the barred owl, whose expansion has been linked to the steep decline of the already threatened northern spotted owl, of which only about 15,000 remain in North America.

The plan has drawn sharp opposition from animal-rights groups like Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, as well as from many Audubon Society chapters, while some timber companies support it because it would relax penalties for accidental spotted-owl deaths. Experts such as Oregon State ecologist William Ripple and Center for Biological Diversity’s Noah Greenwald acknowledge the difficulty of the decision, and Friends of Animals’ Jennifer Best has sued to halt the program, calling it cruel and unlikely to benefit any species. The controversy highlights broader questions about defining invasive species and the ethical trade-offs of intervening in wildlife populations.