Posted on 07/06/2024 5:38:50 AM PDT by Libloather
To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, US wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan: hire trained sharp-shooters to assassinate its rivals.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service strategy released Wednesday is meant to prop up declining spotted owl populations in Oregon, Washington state and California.
Trained shooters will be deployed to the dense forests of the West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their endangered cousins.
Documents released by the agency show up to about 450,000 barred owls would be shot over three decades — a solution designed to level the playing field after this invasive species of owl from the eastern US encroached into western territory.
Both of the Pacific coast's smaller native owls, the northern spotted owls and California spotted owls, have proven unable to compete with the invading barred owls, which breed in larger numbers and need less room to survive.
Past efforts to save spotted owls focused on protecting the forests where they live, sparking bitter fights over logging but also helping slow the birds' decline.
The proliferation of barred owls in recent years is undermining that earlier work, officials said.
'Without actively managing barred owls, northern spotted owls will likely go extinct in all or the majority of their range, despite decades of collaborative conservation efforts,' said Fish and Wildlife Service Oregon state supervisor Kessina Lee.
But the notion of killing one bird species to save another has divided wildlife advocates and conservationists.
It's reminiscent of past government efforts to save West Coast salmon by killing sea lions and cormorants that prey on the fish, and to preserve warblers by killing cowbirds that lay eggs in warbler nests.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Amusing that the government will try to exterminate birds that in the popular cuture are associated with wisdom.
So glad to see my tax dollars being used to kill owls in a national forest
COLONIZERS!! SETTLERS!!! Destroy them!
Oh, I forgot to ask. Are the barred owls white?
Plenty cared about the logging mills. AP, the WaPo, the NYTs did not care, therefore, it did not matter.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has been the worst kind of evil for decades.
If there are some left overs what’s the big deal?
Should we do it with pit bulls? Gypsies?
I could argue that SCOTUS just ruled on this matter.
Absolutely reckless.
Spotted owls were originally barred owls that got isolated during a period of ancient climate change (ice age?) and began to diverge in looks.
It is only natural that when conditions returned to what they were before the ice age isolation that the barriers that kept the two separate would disappear...
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/mao-and-the-sparrows-70a3CxGXTlipwF9YxYHSUQ
Answer
Mao Zedong’s campaign against sparrows in China during the late 1950s had devastating ecological and human consequences:
In 1958, as part of the Great Leap Forward, Mao launched the Four Pests Campaign targeting rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows.
Sparrows were targeted because Mao believed they ate grain seeds, harming crop yields.
The campaign mobilized millions of Chinese citizens to eradicate sparrows through various means, including destroying nests and making loud noises to exhaust the birds.
This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of sparrows across China.
However, the campaign backfired severely. Sparrows also ate insects, and their elimination led to a boom in locust populations.
Without sparrows as natural predators, locusts swarmed across China, devouring crops.
This ecological imbalance, combined with other factors like drought and failed agricultural policies, contributed significantly to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961.
Estimates of the death toll from the famine range from 15 million to as high as 45 or even 78 million people.
In 1960, Mao ended the campaign against sparrows, but it was too late to prevent the ecological disaster and resulting famine.
This episode exemplifies how Mao’s policies, driven by a philosophy of “Man Must Conquer Nature” and disregard for scientific principles, led to catastrophic environmental and human consequences.
The sparrow campaign serves as a stark reminder of the potential for human-induced ecological disasters and the importance of respecting natural ecosystems.
Yeah...what about the JOBS THEY MADE EXTINCT with their idiocy?
And when Washingtonians get the plague from rats the reptiles that rule us will rejoice. An individual owl is known to eat up to 1000 rodents a year, take 1000 * 500,000 and you get 500 million rodents. What could go wrong?
Maybe they could house the Spotted Owls in hotels and give them debit cards.
Trained shooters will be deployed to the dense forests of the
West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls
that are crowding out their endangered cousins.
**********
Reckon they could spend a few days helping corral and remove
the flow of illegals coming into the USA and taking over the
various hand-out agencies?
It’s not about the owls. It’s about training and compliance. It’s about sharpshooters for the state. It’s about practice.
Environazis love Darwin until they don’t.
Yes, but this is what happens when you give power to people who don't know the difference between a boy and a girl.
They’re a Federally protected species, but I guess it’s OK if the Fed’s kill them.
“..The US Fish and Wildlife Service needs a sternly worded letter....”
Already been written: “In their wisdom they became as fools.....”
This reminds me of Mao and the Sparrows. Idiots.
As long as the shooters use lead free shot shells, should be fine. Just avoid the Cheney problem.
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