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Owl vs. owl: Should humans intervene to save a species?
AP ^ | October 15, 2019 | PHUONG LE

Posted on 10/16/2019 8:56:04 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

The federal government has been trying for decades to save the northern spotted owl, a native bird that sparked an intense battle over logging across Washington, Oregon and California decades ago.

After the owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, earning it a cover on Time Magazine, federal officials halted logging on millions of acres of old-growth forests on federal lands to protect the bird’s habitat. But the birds’ population continued to decline.


Graphic showing the differences between a barred and northern spotted owl. (AP Graphic/Peter Hamlin)

Meanwhile, researchers, including Wiens, began documenting another threat — larger, more aggressive barred owls competing with spotted owls for food and space and displacing them in some areas.

In almost all ways, the barred owl is the spotted owl’s worst enemy: They reproduce more often, have more babies per year and eat the same prey, like squirrels and wood rats. And they now outnumber spotted owls in many areas of the native bird’s historic range.

So in a last-ditch effort to see whether they can save spotted owls, federal officials are resorting to killing hundreds of federally protected barred owls.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service experiment, which began in 2015, has raised thorny questions: To what extent can we reverse declines that have unfolded over decades, often due partially to actions by humans? And as climate change continues to shake up the landscape, displacing species and altering how and where plants and animals live and thrive, how should we intervene?

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: owl
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This just leaves me shaking my head. I worked throughout the west in the mid and late 70s when the Spotted Owl debate was raging. Lumber, timber, and paper operations were closed throughout the northwest as a result of putting the Spotted Owl on the Endangered Species list. The effort to save them failed, now the Barred Owl is displacing them, and all those good, high paying jobs were replaced by Indian Casinos everywhere. And, irony of all ironies, the fedgov is now shooting the Barred Owls.

Another liberal fuster cluck.

PS. Note the obligatory reference to climate change making everything worse...not government. It’s the favorite bogeyman of all writers and it doesn’t even require any thinking. Just spew “climate change” all over the place and liberal sages all nod wisely in agreement.



This combination of 2003 and 2006 photos shows a northern spotted owl, left, in the Deschutes National Forest near Camp Sherman, Ore., and a barred owl in East Burke, Vt. Barred owls are native to eastern North America but began moving West at the turn of the 20th century. Scientists believe they migrated to western Canada across the Great Plains in the early 1900s, using forests that popped up as people learned to manage wildfires and planted trees around farms. They arrived in Washington in 1973 and then moved south into Oregon and California. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, Steve Legge)

Another irony! People planted trees on the plains making it possible for the Barred Owl to migrate west! So shutting down all logging operations wasn’t going to keep this invasive species out in the first place! They should have thought of that before killing all those jobs.

1 posted on 10/16/2019 8:56:04 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I favor the lighter colored owl because they’re easier to shoot at night.


2 posted on 10/16/2019 8:58:28 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I love owls, but I wouldn’t resort to craziness in order to help them.

My brother lives in the country. When I house sit for him, I love to sit on the deck at 2 in the morning and catch a listen and look at the owls.

We’ve seen the eyes of bobcats, but never really got good looks.


3 posted on 10/16/2019 9:01:53 AM PDT by Conserv ( b)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Let them fight it out. It doesn’t concern us. Give war a chance.


4 posted on 10/16/2019 9:04:49 AM PDT by rhombus10
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To: Conserv

When we lived on land, we lived in a smaller southern city. We had Barred Owls all over.


5 posted on 10/16/2019 9:06:57 AM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: Conan the Librarian

They are such beautiful, fascinating animals.


6 posted on 10/16/2019 9:07:40 AM PDT by Conserv ( b)
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To: All
...federal officials are resorting to killing hundreds of federally protected barred owls.

SMH and roll my eyes at the stupidity of liberals.

This is why we can't trust them to take care of anything. They make a mess with their illogical ideals.

They shit and fall back in it.


7 posted on 10/16/2019 9:15:01 AM PDT by ssfromla
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
And as climate change continues to shake up the landscape, displacing species and altering how and where plants and animals live and thrive, how should we intervene?

We should not intervene at all.

There is absolutely nothing we can do about climate change. Climate change will occur regardless of any human attempt to change its course. All we can do is alter our behavior to survive that change.

Humane activities are not changing the course of climate change. Climate change precedes human existence and altering its course is beyond our knowledge and power.

8 posted on 10/16/2019 9:15:40 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
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To: rhombus10

Turks on Kurds, on the Syrian border. War is being given every opportunity.


9 posted on 10/16/2019 9:15:43 AM PDT by alloysteel (Nowhere in the Universe is there escape from the consequences of the crime of stupidity.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Why favor one group over another. What about the tarantulas. We should also save them because in less than 12 years the earth is going to end. That's according to congresswoman AOC who as a former bartender is an expert on such things.

10 posted on 10/16/2019 9:20:28 AM PDT by seawolf101 (Member LES DEPLORABLES)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Owl vs. owl: Should humans intervene to save a species?

Not if that species is the Demo Rat.

11 posted on 10/16/2019 9:21:14 AM PDT by Navy Patriot
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To: rhombus10
Let them fight it out. It doesn’t concern us. Give war a chance.

First I have to know.............which is the Christian and which the Moslem?

Interesting article here on why the push from Moslem to Muslim, I believe from now on I will use the historic rather than the politically correct version capitulated to by journalists. https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/524

12 posted on 10/16/2019 9:21:27 AM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
I think I see what's going on. The Barred Owl looks Chinese.
13 posted on 10/16/2019 9:28:47 AM PDT by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll eventually get what you deserve)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

They are now evolution deniers, interfering with survival of the fittest.

It’s obvious why the barred owl is winning. There lifespan is half, therefore the reproduce twice as many generations in a given period with slight increases in population each time.

Much the same is happening in the human population I might add.


14 posted on 10/16/2019 9:35:15 AM PDT by seowulf
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To: philetus
We should have saved the dinosaurs
15 posted on 10/16/2019 9:36:57 AM PDT by shadeaud (Stand up and be proud that you are Americans regards of color)
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To: Conserv
I love to sit on the deck at 2 in the morning and catch a listen and look at the owls.

They are fascinating. Out on the front porch late while puffing on my pipe, a huge white owl (barred?) landed on the gutter about two feet above my head. With their keen eyesight I'm sure he must have seen me but he perched there for a few moments before moving on.

Where I used to live the county has a raptor center which has cages for injured birds of prey to recover from injuries. Anyway, my son's Eagle project was to build a cage for owls. It was about the size of a single car garage. We made it with good lumber and chain link fencing. Its first resident was a great horned owl that would clack its beak if you did anything to upset him.

16 posted on 10/16/2019 9:38:27 AM PDT by DeFault User
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

This was the reason they started allowing the hunting of certain animals in certain areas using tags. When man, in his stupidity, changes the flow of nature, it is the only way he thinks he can try to save it. A perfect example is the buffalo. It destroyed the Plains Indian way of life just for sport.

Man is really stupid when it comes to millions of years of natural selection. And the difference in Nature and man is that animals select to survive and get better through natural culling. Man, in many cases, unfortunately, does not fall into the same criteria since they jerked the death penalty and let them out.

rwood


17 posted on 10/16/2019 9:40:42 AM PDT by Redwood71
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To: Conserv
They are such beautiful, fascinating animals.

There's a series of videos out there by a guy who had an owl and cat that became close friends. Whenever he took the owl to the country to let it fly, the cat came along and they would playfully attack each other. The cat would leap high to catch the owl as it zoomed by......Sadly the cat died.....

18 posted on 10/16/2019 9:46:51 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (I'm in the cleaning business.......I launder money)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

They should be asking the families in Northern California that Lost Loved ones and Homes, if saving the Spotted Owl was worth their Homes and Lives.


19 posted on 10/16/2019 9:47:50 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: DeFault User

Interesting.

I often watch the TV show, North Woods Law, so I have heard that clacking before.

After watching my first episode of Mountain Men, I had to look up Marten.

I remember thinking... What the hell is a marten?


20 posted on 10/16/2019 9:48:39 AM PDT by Conserv ( b)
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