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Congressman Troy E. Nehls and Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove have led a bipartisan effort urging the Department of the Interior to stop funding a plan that involves killing nearly 470,000 barred owls over the next three decades in the Pacific Northwest. In a letter addressed to Secretary Doug Burgum, they criticized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) plan as "impractical and grossly expensive," estimating it would cost $1.35 billion.
The representatives argue that this approach lacks fiscal responsibility and ethical conservation principles. They noted that there has been no Congressional oversight of the project, which spans 24 million acres from California's Bay Area to the Canadian border. The USFWS's Final Environmental Impact Statement reportedly lacks meaningful cost estimates or detailed descriptions of how such a large-scale operation would be executed.
The initiative aims to protect spotted owls, listed as threatened since 1990 under the Endangered Species Act. Despite efforts like limiting logging on federal lands, there has been no significant increase in their population. The USFWS attributes their decline partly to competition from barred owls, which have expanded into Pacific Northwest forests over the past 130 years.
Opposition to the plan includes more than 260 stakeholder organizations, animal welfare groups, and several Audubon Society chapters. A New York Times op-ed expressed skepticism about its effectiveness in preventing spotted owl extinction, while local newspapers also questioned its impact on evolutionary processes.
The USFWS proposes using trained shooters from various agencies and private entities for this task. In December 2024, they awarded a $4.5 million grant to the Hoopa Valley Native American Tribe for killing 1,500 barred owls at an estimated cost of $3,000 per owl.
Critics argue that wildlife control programs have had limited success in similar contexts and stress that barred owls are native species protected under longstanding legislation like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Representatives signing the letter include Josh Harder, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Troy Carter, Jeff Van Drew, Steve Cohen, Brian Fitzpatrick, Andy Ogles, Lance Gooden, Don Davis, Tony Wied, Gilbert Cisneros, Scott Fitzgerald, Lois Frankel, Scott Perry, Summer Lee, Anna Paulina Luna, and Deborah Ross.
The letter concludes by urging Secretary Burgum to reconsider this costly and impractical plan.