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A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 16 OctOber 2019
Owl killings spur moral questions about human intervention

By PHUONG LE than just having barred
Associated Press owls take over and wipe
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — As out all the prey species," he
he stood amid the thick said.
old-growth forests in the Marc Bekoff, professor
coastal range of Oregon, emeritus of ecology and
Dave Wiens was nervous. evolutionary biology at
Before he trained to shoot the University of Colorado,
his first barred owl, he had Boulder, finds the practice
never fired a gun. abhorrent and said hu-
He eyed the big female mans should find another
owl, her feathers streaked way to help owl.
brown and white, perched "There's no way to couch
on a branch at just the it as a good thing if you're
right distance. Then he killing one species to save
squeezed the trigger and another," Bekoff said.
the owl fell to the forest And Michael Harris, who
floor, adding to a running directs the wildlife law pro-
tally of more than 2,400 gram for Friends of Ani-
barred owls killed so far in mals, thinks the govern-
a controversial experiment ment should focus on what
by the U.S. government to humans are doing to the
test whether the northern environment and protect
spotted owl's rapid decline habitats rather than scape-
in the Pacific Northwest goating barred owls.
can be stopped by killing "We really have to let these
its aggressive East Coast things work themselves
cousin. This combination of 2003 and 2006 photos shows a northern spotted owl, left, in the Deschutes out," Harris said. "It's going
Wiens grew up fascinated National Forest near Camp Sherman, Ore., and a barred owl in East Burke, Vt. to be very common with
by birds, and his graduate Associated Press climate change. What are
research in owl interactions we going to do — pick and
helped lay the groundwork ficials halted logging on mil- extent can we reverse de- gobble imperiled salmon choose the winners?"
for this tense moment. lions of acres of old-growth clines that have unfolded runs in the Columbia River. Some see a responsibility to
"It's a little distasteful, I think, forests on federal lands to over decades, often par- In four small study areas in intervene, however, noting
to go out killing owls to protect the bird's habitat. tially due to actions by Washington, Oregon and that humans are partly to
save another owl species," But the birds' population humans? And as climate northern California, Wiens blame for the underlying
said Wiens, a biologist who continued to decline. change continues to shake and his trained team have conditions with activities
still views each shooting as Meanwhile, researchers, in- up the landscape, how been picking off invasive like logging, which helped
"gut-wrenching" as the first. cluding Wiens, began doc- should we intervene? barred owls with 12-gauge lead to the spotted owl's
"Nonetheless, I also feel like umenting another threat The experimental killing of shotguns to see whether decline. And others just see
from a conservation stand- — larger, more aggressive barred owls raised such the native birds return to a no-win situation.
point, our back was up barred owls competing moral dilemmas when it their nesting habitat once "A decision not to kill the
against the wall. We knew with spotted owls for food first was proposed in 2012 their competitors are gone. barred owl is a decision to
that barred owls were out- and space and displacing that the Fish and Wildlife Small efforts to remove let the spotted owl go ex-
competing spotted owls them in some areas. Service took the unusual barred owls in British Colum- tinct," said Bob Sallinger,
and their populations were In almost all ways, the step of hiring an ethicist to bia and northern California conservation director with
going haywire." barred owl is the spotted help work through wheth- already showed promising the Audubon Society of
The federal government owl's worst enemy: They re- er it was acceptable and results. Portland. "That's what we
has been trying for de- produce more often, have could be done humanely. The Fish and Wildlife Ser- have to wrestle with."
cades to save the northern more babies per year and The owl experiment is un- vice has a permit to kill up If the experimental removal
spotted owl, a native bird eat the same prey, like usual because it involves to 3,600 owls and, if the of barred owls improves the
that sparked an intense squirrels and wood rats. killing one species of owl $5 million program works, spotted owl populations,
battle over logging across And they now outnumber to save another owl spe- could decide to expand its the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Washington, Oregon and spotted owls in many areas cies. But federal and state efforts. may consider killing more
California decades ago. of the native bird's historic officials already have in- Wiens, who works for the owls as part of a larger,
After the owl was listed as range. tervened with other spe- U.S. Geological Survey, long-term management
threatened under the En- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife cies. They have broken the now views his gun as "a re- strategy. Enough success
dangered Species Act in Service's experiment, which necks of thousands of cow- search tool" in humankind's has been noted that the
1990, earning it a cover on began in 2015, has raised birds to save the warbler, a attempts to maintain biodi- experiment already has
Time Magazine, federal of- thorny questions: To what songbird once on the brink versity and rebalance the been extended to August
of extinction. To preserve forest ecosystem. Because 2021.
salmon runs in the Pacific the barred owl has few "I certainly don't see north-
Northwest and perch and predators in Northwest for- ern spotted owls going ex-
other fish in the Midwest, ests, he sees his team's role tinct completely," Wiens
agencies kill thousands of as apex predator, acting said, adding that "extinc-
large seabirds called dou- as a cap on a population tion in this case will be
ble-crested cormorants. that doesn't have one. much longer process and
And last year, Congress "Humans, by stepping in from what we've seen
passed a law making it eas- and taking that role in na- from doing these removal
ier for Oregon, Washington, ture, we may be able to experiments, we may be
Idaho and American Indi- achieve more biodiversity able to slow some of those
an tribes to kill sea lions that in the environment, rather declines."q