A bipartisan group of lawmakers has called on the Trump administration to abandon its plan to kill over 450,000 invasive barred owls in West Coast forests, arguing that it would be excessively costly.
The lawmakers, numbering 19 and including Republican Rep. Troy Nehls from Texas and Democrat Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove from California, said the plan would cost $3,000 per owl.
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They questioned whether the killings would benefit the native northern spotted owl populations, which have been controversial due to logging restrictions in their habitats since the 1990s, as well as the closely related California spotted owl.
Barred owls, native to eastern North America, began appearing in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, quickly displacing the smaller spotted owls that require larger territories to breed. Federal officials estimate that 100,000 barred owls now inhabit the region, compared to just 7,100 spotted owls.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's plan, approved last year, would involve trained shooters targeting barred owls over 30 years across 23,000 square miles (60,000 square kilometers) in California, Oregon, and Washington. The plan did not provide a cost estimate, but the lawmakers suggested it could exceed $1.3 billion, based on costs from a grant awarded to the Hoopa Valley Native American Tribe to kill up to 1,500 barred owls.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the lawmakers described the plan as an inefficient and inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, accusing the federal government of attempting to control environmental outcomes at great expense.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to questions about the cost estimate and the owl removal program. The plan calls for the removal of more than 2,400 barred owls this year, with the number increasing to over 15,500 annually by 2027.
Since 2009, researchers have been experimenting with shooting barred owls, and the results suggest that this strategy could halt the decline of spotted owls. About 4,500 barred owls have been killed on the West Coast in this research effort.
The practice of removing one bird species to protect others has sparked debate among wildlife advocates, echoing past government actions, such as killing sea lions and cormorants to save salmon or removing cowbirds to protect warblers. The barred owl removals would be one of the largest efforts involving birds of prey.
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Researchers believe the barred owls spread into the Pacific Northwest through the Great Plains or Canada’s boreal forests, both of which have become more suitable for them due to climate change. Their presence has undermined decades of restoration efforts aimed at protecting spotted owls, which included logging restrictions during President Bill Clinton's administration that temporarily slowed the spotted owl's decline.