In a deeply disturbing move, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has proposed a plan to kill up to 450,000 native barred owls in forests across California, Oregon, and Washington. The stated goal is to reduce competition with the threatened spotted owl, but the plan has drawn fierce backlash from lawmakers, environmentalists, and wildlife protection groups.
The $ 1.35 billion proposal, dubbed by locals as the “hoot and shoot,” would authorize the mass killing of barred owls in 17 national forests and 14 national park units, including iconic locations like Mount Rainier, Olympic, Crater Lake, Redwoods, and Yosemite.
Twenty members of Congress, led by Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and Adam Gray (D-CA), sent a bipartisan letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum urging him to defund the plan and suspend permits for killing barred owls, a species protected under federal law for over a century.
“Even if executed perfectly, the plan could not hope to achieve its aim of reducing barred owl populations in the area, because millions of barred owls occupy the surrounding forests (including in Canada, where USFWS cannot manage them),” the lawmakers wrote. “The plan fails to explain why barred owls from those surrounding areas would not be attracted to the same nesting sites and simply fly in to replace the culled owls.”
Critics argue the plan is not only ethically indefensible, but also scientifically flawed and fiscally reckless. According to Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, the USFWS failed to properly analyze the environmental impacts, violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The organizations have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Seattle, leading to a delay in the plan’s implementation until at least late 2025.
“At a time when the Administration is seeking to cut wasteful government programs, this one deserves to be at the top of the list,” lawmakers added in their letter. “We wish to associate ourselves with concerns raised by 19 of our colleagues who wrote to you on March 7, 2025, about a USFWS plan to kill more than 450,000 barred owls across 24 million acres in the Pacific Northwest over the next three decades.”
Congressman Adam Gray emphasized the broader implications for communities and ecosystems, stating, “The Central Valley knows that protecting wildlife is essential to the health of our communities. In sending this bipartisan letter to Secretary Burgum, I’m joining my colleagues across the aisle to save taxpayer dollars while preventing unnecessary wildlife displacement.”
Opposition to the plan is widespread. Earlier this year, four rural Oregon state legislators and a former two-term Washington State Public Lands Commissioner also voiced their objections.
More than 300 organizations have now joined the fight against the owl-killing plan, including over two dozen local Audubon societies and numerous raptor rehabilitation centers.
At its core, this plan is a brutal reminder of how far some agencies are willing to go to “manage” nature, at the expense of the very wildlife they claim to protect. Instead of gunfire and mass killings, our approach to conservation must evolve toward coexistence, habitat restoration, and respect for all native species.
Nature isn’t something to be gunned down for convenience. It’s something to be protected. And the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of owls should never be considered a solution.
