Federal wildlife
officials plan to dispatch hunters into forests of the
Pacific Northwest starting this fall to shoot one species of
owl to protect another that is threatened with extinction.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday released a
final environmental review of an experiment to see if
killing barred owls will allow northern spotted owls to
reclaim territory they’ve been driven out of over the past
half-century. The agency has been evaluating the idea since
2009, gathering public comment and consulting ethicists,
focus groups and scientific studies. It will issue a final
decision on the plan in a month. “If we don’t manage barred
owls, the probability of recovering the spotted owl goes
down significantly,” said Paul Henson, Oregon state
supervisor for Fish and Wildlife. The agency’s preferred
course of action calls for killing 3,603 barred owls in four
study areas in Oregon, Washington and Northern California
over the next four years. The experiment requires a special
permit under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits
killing nongame birds...more
Playin' God, shooting one species to supposedly save
another. As the article points out, this isn't the only
place the D.C. Deities are active:
The idea of killing barred owls to protect northern spotted
owls underscores the fragile balance of nature that
biologists have struggled with in recent years. Between 2000
and 2006, wildlife officials captured and removed more than
40 golden eagles from the Channel Islands off Southern
California to protect the island fox. They also hired a
company to kill 5,000 feral pigs on Santa Cruz in a
controversial program to restore the island’s ecosystem. In
Oregon, wildlife officials have used lethal injections to
kill selected California sea lions that feast on protected
salmon in the Columbia River. And in Yosemite National Park,
saving bighorn sheep has meant hunting protected mountain
lions.
On any other issue it's no human intervention and let
nature take its course.
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