An an inane strategy that is sure to revolt basically everyone, the US Fish and Wildlife decided to being hunting barred owls in the Pacific Northwest. Why? Because they care so much about the spotted owl that they don’t want the barred owl around.
They plan on killing over 3,500 barred owls over the next four years in California, Oregon, and Washington. This at the same time as the Forest Service has called for a 20 percent increase of logging in all national forests. Meanwhile, Senator Wyden (D-OR) is calling for the “streamlining and modernization” of the Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).
Most people who believe that there should be even the slightest parity between the logging companies (read: robber barons) and the enviros think that NEPA has been cut to shreds. Indeed, with the surveying and science behind forestry wilted after Clinton’s Salvage Rider Act and Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative, this next “modernization” might be the end of NEPA as a practical tool for saving forests.
One would think that the plan would be part of an urge to do things cheaper or more efficiently, but the plan will cost $3 million and will require special permits.
The weirdest part is that the timber industry doesn’t even like the idea. Said Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council: ”Shooting a few isolated areas of barred owl isn’t going to help us as forest managers, nor is it going to help the forest be protected from wildfires, and catastrophic wildfire is one of the big impediments to spotted owl recovery.”
But the war path against owls is consistent with the way that “sustainable” or “modern” forestry operates—it’s a bunch of government technocrats destroying the world from behind their desks. As Obama said in his climate speech, we can cut down the forests and burn lots of coal at the same time as we build lots of solar panels—that is the way we will win the climate race against China. So, to manage an ever-dwindling stock of real, flourishing forest ecosystems, we can simply kill the more prolific animals so that the rarer species can co-habitate. That way, all species can be endangered together.
In 2010, the State of Oregon tried to kill sea lions to “defend” salmon. Forget that salmon habitat is being decimated, what we really need to do is go after the most harmless animals in the world. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Sealion Defense Brigade, that plan was hindered and eventually destroyed.
The barred owl hunts will likely be carried out with shotguns, luring owls to the sounds of intruders and then shooting them down as the fly.
- Owl Defenders Unite!
