US government plan to kill 500,000 Barred Owls isn’t about conservation it’s a deflection from truth.

By Staci-lee Sherwood

In 2025 the US Fish Wildlife Agency, which had done some good things in the past but has since lost its way, put into action their 20 year plan to kill half a million federally protected and native Barred owls.  This was sold as a way to save the declining population of the native Northern Spotted owl.  If conservation were actually part of this, the owls would be relocated not killed.  Cost to taxpayers who likely have no clue this is going on will be $1.35 billion, so where is DOGE ?  Isn’t this the very definition of waste and fraud?  The idiocy of government back peddling.  The shortsightedness and stupidity the US federal government had in logging the old growth forests the Northern Spotted owl depended on, to only now realize they screwed up again is what’s driving this plan. 

Why blame Barred Owls?

The Barred owl is larger, has a more diverse diet, and they’ve lost much of their habitat in the east to logging and development.   Out of the need for survival they did what we humans have done….some migrated to a better place.  Unfortunately the move has made the decline in Northern Spotted owl worse, but their decline started long ago in the 1970s with logging and habitat loss.   The government chose the blame game by pointing to Barred owls when it was mainly their own policies that started this domino effect.  In a nutshell the fools at USFWS will kill Barred owls to pretend to save Northern Spotted owls despite their decline being more about logging that USFWS allowed, rather than any other native species living in their habitat.  At this point if you still believe anything said by anyone working for government please re-read the last sentence. 

A Barred owl looks on unaware of what is to come

Does this seem like Barred owls are the problem or is the ‘management’ program just another government slush fund of waste and cruelty?  As seen on ebird,org

The USFWS employees have jobs to protect, and most of those in charge are hunters and developers not conservationists which is why most of their policies are the antithesis of what their mission statement is.  They claim to spend millions on saving endangered species publicaly while delisting them and defunding real conservation programs quietly. This plan will not save the Northern Spotted owl, clearly other things are the real cause of their decline.  Most of our wildlife policies fail because we think we can outsmart nature, we can’t nor do we ever look at the whole ecosystem.  Over and over we have absurd failed policies we keep repeating yet few ever ask why.

‘When it comes to conservation never trust the government, at any level, they all lie’

For examples of this schizophrenic policy making they spend millions pretending to save the Sage Grouse while also allowing them to be hunted.  In 2022 the same federal agency (USFWS), working with the National Park Service, decided to have a trophy hunt for native Mountain Goats in Grand Teton NP.  They could have relocated them to Washington state national parks, who requested them because their own population had declined.  They chose a private trophy hunt for their friends instead.  The National Park Service said ‘permanently removing the mountain goats was out of concern for their big horn sheep.’  Sound familiar? It’s the same excuse and same play book. 

You can read the idiocy documented here https://www.realitycheckswithstacilee.com/post/why-are-mountain-goats-considered-native-in-one-park-but-not-in-another-right-next-door

What does this owl management plan entail?

The Barred owl project as it stands wants the taxpaying public to believe that federal, state, tribal governments and private landowners will engage in lethal Barred owl removal under ‘stringent and humane protocols.’  The plan is to shoot them over the next 30 years.  Unsuspecting owls will be lured using megaphones of calls then shot and buried.  No one seems to ask why take 30 years if the problem is so urgent, here is where you see the fraud and lies.  If in fact the Barred owls were the main culprit in Northern Spotted owl decline then 30 years is too long to wait for a remedy if extinction is what you hope to prevent.  It’s not, because their policy proves how unscientific the methodology is and what little affect it will have. 

For anyone who has ever worked with state and federal agencies, as I have for over 30 years, this is a total lie designed to assuage any questions by a public who often fail to question and research what they’re told.  I personally know how little federal agencies care about animal welfare or conservation as most agencies have been co-opted by hunters and developers, this is true for state agencies.  Land owners have zero accountability especially out west.  I tried several times to contact the USFWS official in charge, biologist Robin Bown in Portland, Oregon, via email and phone and never got a response.  Perhaps the silence is the response, they just don’t care to rethink their decision. 

An adult Barred owl at sunrise

Looking for breakfast.  Owls are nature’s rodent control by keeping their population in check.  People may not like rodents but rats, mice and rabbits provide food for many animals from owls to foxes.  They’re vital to a healthy ecosystem.   A healthy owl population means no need for rodenticides which kill thousands of owls every year when they consume the poisoned mice, rats and rabbits killed by the poison

Who supports the killing of Barred owls

Friends of the Animals filed a lawsuit in November 2024 to stop the killing.  They have always worked to put animals first.  Several misguided nonprofits have sold out Barred owls or just don’t care enough to formulate a sustainable humane plan.  A quick look at staff, board members, grant donors and sponsors often reveals people involved in animal welfare issues who should never be near a nonprofit or an animal.  I’ve written extensively about fake nonprofits that greenwash their mission statements by using sob stories with glossy photos to lure you into donating while staff and board members plunder the earth or hide their money in offshore accounts.  Just because the word ‘environment’ or ‘welfare’ is in the name doesn’t make it so.  To quote from Shakespeare in Romeo & Juliet ‘What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.’  Look at the work not the name. 

Click here to read how Defenders of Wildlife is no more a true defender https://www.realitycheckswithstacilee.com/post/fall-from-grace-from-saving-wildlife-to-exploiting-them-for-cash

Click here to follow Friends of Animals as they try to stop the killing https://friendsofanimals.org/friends-of-animals-sues-fws-to-stop-the-disastrous-slaughter-of-450000-barred-owls/

A juvenile tries to catch a snap

The list below shows who supports the policy of killing Barred owls.  While some of the nonprofits do good things in other areas, others support hunting or get money from the very government agencies they are suppose to watchdog.  If you donate or volunteer first research who is giving grants and what is stipulated in them. 

Nonprofits and tribes supporting the killing, not relocating, of Barred owls are:

• Conservation northwest – receives grants from U.S. Forest Service, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

• Bird alliance of Oregon

• Environmental Protection Information Center

• Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center

• Umpqua Watersheds

• Marin Audubon Society – as policy they do support hunting

• The Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS)

• The Hoopa tribe of California - got a big government grant money to kill them 1500 owls for $4.5 million dollars.

Why would a nonprofit opt for killing when they claim to be conservationists? They could relocate Barred owls to the northern part of the country, from Montana to Maine, where forests and wilderness still remain if they wanted to save them.  Question their real motive and who funds them.  The money trail never lies.  Florida has a population that is being decimated through its current slash and burn development policy.  The excuse and lie they are thriving and need to be removed is false for anyone doing research.  Killing a native species to save another native species in trouble because of human activity is exactly what hunters say, no surprise hunters make up a big majority of state and federal wildlife agencies.

An owlet looks for mom after leaving the nest

What you can do

• Sign and share this petition

  https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-kill-plan-hoot-for-justice

  
  

• If in the USA call your House of Rep congress person and ask they vote FOR HJ RES 111 - "Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service relating to "Barred Owl Management Strategy". click here to find your rep https://www.house.gov/representatives

  
  

• Educate yourself about this issue, what federal agencies really do and how Congress votes.  It may sound funny to some but so few people truly know the facts even fewer know how to research.  Social media has destroyed most people’s ability to differentiate fact and fiction as half of what is online is total lies and the other half must be verified.

  
  

• Follow / support Friends of Animals https://friendsofanimals.org/

  
  

• Contact USFWS biologist who’s the mastermind behind the killing program and ask they stop killing a native species in such a misguided policy and end logging in owl habitat- Robin Bown in Portland, OR office (503) 231-6179 – email robin_bown@fws.gov

  
  

• Spread the word about this misguided policy and agency that should be removed from anything to do with wildlife since they have ZERO credibility

It’s up to us to save our wildlife before hunters and developers kill them all