The strange political bedfellows created by efforts to save spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest just got stranger.
Republican members of Congress have already allied themselves with animal rights activists.
They don't want trained shooters to kill up to 450,000 barred owls, which outnumber northern spotted owls, under US Fish and Wildlife Service Plan approved last year, which will last for three decades.
Now timber interests are joining forces with environmentalists in favor of eliminating the owls.
Some logging advocates worry that canceling the plan will slow down timber harvesting. According to Travis Joseph, president and CEO of the American Forest Resources Council, a trade association representing mills, loggers, lumber buyers and other stakeholders in the region, approximately 2.6 million acres of forestland in western Oregon managed by the Bureau of Land Management are subject to resource management plans that depend on continued barred owl culling.
Under current plans, the area could produce at least 278 million cardboard feet per year, “with the potential for significantly more,” Joseph said in a letter to Congress in mid-October.
If the shutdown is lifted, the federal agency would likely have to reopen Endangered Species Act consultations for the northern spotted owl, which is listed as threatened, he said. This is a process that can take years. According to the letter, this would create “unacceptable risks and delays in current and future timber sales.”
Timber production goals set by the Trump administration could also be in jeopardy.
Momentum to stop the cull increased this summer when Sen. John Kennedy, a conservative from Louisiana, introduced resolution reverse the Biden-era plan.
The move reflected an unlikely alliance between some right-wing politicians and animal rights activists who say it too expensive and inhumane. Some Democrats also opposed the cull, and companion legislation in the House of Representatives has bipartisan support.
The stakes are high. Many ecologists and scientists argue that northern spotted owls will become extinct unless their competitors are kept in check. Barred owls, native to eastern North America, are larger, more aggressive and less picky when it comes to habitat and food, giving them an advantage when competing for resources.
Last week Politico's This was reported by E&E News. Kennedy said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asked him to give up trying to stop the plan to kill the owls. The legislator told the publication that he would move forward in any case.
“I don't think the federal government should be telling God, nature, whatever you believe in, this can exist and this can't,” Kennedy told E&E. “The spotted owl is not the first species to ever move its territory, and it won’t be the last.”
Kennedy did not respond to The Times' request for comment. A Home Office spokesperson said they were unable to respond to the request due to the government shutdown.
“It's odd that a Republican in the South would take on the owl issue, especially when its consequences would impact BLM timber sales in western Oregon,” Joseph said in an interview. “This will reduce county revenues, impact jobs and put the spotted owl on the path to extinction.”
This position overlaps with that of environmental groups such as the Environmental Information Center and the Center for Biological Diversity, which support the culling of spotted owls to help beleaguered spotted owls in their home territory. It's a surprising coincidence given the long history of conservationists fighting to protect the primary forests in the region the owls call home.
Tom Wheeler, executive director of EPIC, said it's possible that the barred owl cull could lead to a sharp increase in timber harvesting on BLM lands in western Oregon, but overall it would result in more habitat being protected throughout spotted owl range. wide range. The presence of spotted owls triggers protection under the Endangered Species Act. If the cull increases the spotted owl population as expected, that means more fencing.
“Admittedly, this puts us in an awkward position,” Wheeler said. “But our advocacy for eradication of the barred owl is not based on viewing the northern spotted owl as a tool against the forest industry and against timber harvesting. We are trying to ensure the continued existence of the species.”
Many Native American tribes support control of barred owls in the region. In a letter to Congress last week, the nonprofit Intertribal Forest Council said barred owls pose a greater threat than the spotted owl.
“As a generalist predator, it poses a threat to a wide range of forest and aquatic species that have varying degrees of social and ecological importance to tribes, including species essential to traditional food systems and watershed health,” wrote the council, which aims to improve management of natural resources important to Native American communities.
Since 2013, the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California has engaged in sanctioned owl hunting and has seen the spotted owl population stabilize over time, according to the letter.
However, groups such as Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy argue that a plan to kill so many barred owls over a wide area would not work, short of a large number of owl deaths. More barred owls will simply fly where others were removed, said Wayne Pacelle, president of both groups.
That makes habitat a key factor, Pacella said, and the prospect of large losses due to logging in western Oregon is devastating.
To stop the owl cull plan, both houses of Congress would have to pass a joint resolution, and President Trump would have to sign it. If successful, the resolution would prevent the agency from enforcing a similar rule unless it is explicitly approved by Congress.
Plan Already faced failures. In May, federal officials canceled three matching grants totaling more than $1.1 million, including one study it would eliminate barred owls from more than 192,000 acres in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
