Environmental nonprofit says mean ol' Trump cuts could threaten Oregon's spotted owl population

Put a bounty on the barred owls and send kids with airguns after them.  
Those owls will be half gone in a year.

PORTLAND, Ore. — An environmental nonprofit is sounding the alarm over the 
federal funding cuts and hiring freeze instituted by President Donald 
Trump's administration, which it said could threaten the population of 
Oregon's endangered spotted owl.

The widespread layoffs and cuts instituted by the Trump administration 
have set off a series of protests across the country and around Portland, 
some of which have focused specifically on the thousands of U.S. National 
Parks and Forest Service workers who have been fired.

The Northwest Forest Plan and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 
require the endangered owl population to be monitored, but the Center for 
Biological Diversity said in a news release that the federal freeze means 
the monitoring "either won't occur or will be greatly reduced."

Most of the monitoring work for the owls, as well as other Pacific 
Northwest endangered species, is performed by seasonal biologists who do 
field work in the spring and summer, such as placing acoustic recorders to 
listen for owls. But those biologists need to be hired in the initial 
months of the year in order to be ready to go, according to the nonprofit.

"I'm deeply concerned that we're not able to collect most of the data we 
need to monitor the health of the beautiful northern spotted owl because 
of a lack of staff," said Taal Levi, Ph.D., an associate professor of 
wildlife biology at Oregon State University and a collaborator on the 
spotted owl monitoring project. "We need this data every year to ensure 
that our efforts to protect these owls and the old forests they depend on 
are succeeding."

The monitoring efforts help inform BLM decisions about timber sales and 
fuel reduction projects, the nonprofit said, and the lack of monitoring 
could impact those decisions.

"This assault by Trump and Musk on the civil servants who help save 
endangered species across the country is just beginning to rear its ugly 
head, and spotted owls could be their first victim," Noah Greenwald, 
endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said 
in a statement. "As a former seasonal spotted owl surveyor myself, I know 
first-hand how important keeping track of these inquisitive birds is to 
their survival. Decades of work has gone into ensuring the owls aren’t 
harmed by logging on our public lands. If we can’t do the surveys, the 
logging may need to stop."

The spotted owl has become particularly well-known in Oregon as an example 
of both the successes and frustrations of the federal Endangered Species 
Act. After the spotted owl became listed as endangered in 1990, the 
Northwest Forest Plan was developed to designate and protect millions of 
acres of old growth forest — a decision that has been hailed by 
environmentalists and criticized by the logging industry.

But the spotted owl remains endangered three decades later, with further 
population declines largely attributed to the spread of the barred owl to 
the U.S. West Coast over the past 50 years. Barred owls tend to be larger 
and more territorial, crowding out the smaller species.

The situation spawned a new controversy last year when the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service adopted a plan to shoot and kill about 450,000 barred 
owls over 30 years to protect the spotted owl population in Oregon, 
Washington and California. 

In fact, it's already intersected with the Trump administration; last 
month, a group of western Oregon lawmakers called on Trump's Department of 
Government Efficiency, run by billionaire Elon Musk, to cancel the barred 
owl culling plan because it would be too expensive.

https://www.kgw.com/article/tech/science/environment/trump-cuts-threaten-
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