Poll & petition: proposed cull of almost half a million Barred Owls (1 Viewer)

[01101001]

USFWS Barred Owl Removal Plan

The United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) is seeking public comment on a draft plan to manage Barred Owls in western US forests: https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2023-11/service-seeks-public-comment-draft-strategy-manage-invasive-barred-owls More information from USFWS about their...

www.birdforum.net

Here's the link to the petition:

Sign the Petition

Stop the Uâ.âS. Fish and Wildlife Service from killing Barred Owls

www.change.org

If you want, you can also sign another petition, which I've just started:

Sign the Petition

Don't kill Barred Owls; move Spotted Owls instead

www.change.org

Discussion welcome (not all people read Conservation subforum).

 

[qwerty5]

I voted no, simply because it seems like an incomplete response to the problem, and I believe the resources could be used better.

The first petition you linked is entirely emotional pleading, which is something I very much dislike. If a position is true, then use logic to support it. Besides, in my not so humble opinion, the idea that culling the owls is somehow unethical is total nonsense.

 

[01101001]

That's one of the reasons I started my own petition, though it has much less support than the other one for now. Still, I thought that a difference of less than 400 votes could be overcome with time.

 

[Jos Stratford]

Even if agreeing with the arguments in your petition, which as mentioned on the other thread I think are fundamentally flawed, having multiple questions (one poll and two petitions) asking essentially the same simply dilutes each.

 

[01101001]

I hope people are motivated enough to at least click through the petition(s). I might be wrong. Still, better than nothing.

EDIT: Also, my petition is under the topic Animals, whereas the other one is under Environment, I think. The former drives more engagement overall, and the target groups don't necessarily overlap. Still, the other petition is more popular, which should make it more frequently displayed.

My petition needs at least 3 more signatures to show on the website (now it's only accessible via the link above).

 

[Mysticete]

I firmly believe we should leave decisions about wildlife management to the professionals that actually work on the situation, and not armchair quarterback their ideas with wishful thinking and data free emotion-driven pleas.

 

[01101001]

Over a thousand signatures so far:

Sign the Petition

Stop the Uâ.âS. Fish and Wildlife Service from killing Barred Owls

www.change.org

(Happy New Year, BTW!)

 

[01101001]

As it often happens, my promotion efforts were misguided, and there's another petition with almost 50,000 signatures on another website:

Petition: Help Save Half a Million Barred Owls from Being Massacred

Please take a moment of your time to sign this petition to urge the U.S. government to consider alternative options now!

www.onegreenplanet.org

EDIT: ... and I didn't see it previously because it was created 8 days ago by the website's employees (?)

It looks like you need to give them your physical address as well (not required for change.org)?

 

[qwerty5]

As it often happens, my promotion efforts were misguided, and there's another petition with almost 50,000 signatures on another website:

Petition: Help Save Half a Million Barred Owls from Being Massacred

Please take a moment of your time to sign this petition to urge the U.S. government to consider alternative options now!

www.onegreenplanet.org

EDIT: ... and I didn't see it previously because it was created 8 days ago by the website's employees (?)

It looks like you need to give them your physical address as well (not required for change.org)?

Once again, just unfounded emotional pleading. They provide no legitimate reasoning to stop the action. Let the FWS do their job, please.

By the way, I switched my vote here because of discussion on the original thread.

 

[01101001]

I didn't even read this one in full.

 

[Ted Y.]

"To create space for spotted owls to continue breeding, authorities would aim to kill about 20,000 barred owls in the first year, then continue killing them for the next 30 years."

‘No easy answer’: the endangered owls that can only be saved by killing other owls

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum depicts how northern spotted owls are being protected . . . by culling their near relatives

www.theguardian.com

Not 500,000 this year.

 

[01101001]

Yes, I know. I don't know what they wrote in their petition and can't answer for that.

EDIT: Looks like they didn't claim that it would be done in one year.

 

[Ted Y.]

Looks like they didn't claim that it would be done in one year.

Correct. It is not clear.

What Darwin (the one with the theory) would think about this culling?

 

[Mysticete]

Correct. It is not clear.

What Darwin (the one with the theory) would think about this culling?

I mean he was a Victorian scientist, who almost certainly shot his own share of birds. I doubt a cull would bother him that much.

 

[Bewick]

I firmly believe we should leave decisions about wildlife management to the professionals that actually work on the situation, and not armchair quarterback their ideas with wishful thinking and data free emotion-driven pleas.

This is why I voted maybe, sometimes culls are necessary (the ruddy duck situation for example). Just a question to those who adamantly oppose the proposed cull, are you also against the the culling of invasive mammals in countries such as New Zealand and/or the exterminations that wildlife organisations such as the RSPB do to mostly native species? Human intervention is necessary in certain situations, especially when humans were responsible for creating the problem to begin with.

 

[scissortail666]

Spotted owls are in decline because of old growth logging. But will the government, any government, ever intervene to stop old growth logging? No, of course not.

I'm in British Columbia where the last known breeding site of spotted owls in the country in Spuzzum, BC is being actively logged.

So yeah, these type of "conservation plans" that do nothing to address the root cause of species decline and kill thousands of beautiful owls, p*ss me off.

 

[Trinovid]

Spotted owls are in decline because of old growth logging.

Keeping the myth and manufactured narrative alive.

 

[Maroon Jay]

It depends on the definition of "invasive." For me, an invasive species is one such as House Sparrows or rats that humans bring intentionally or unintentionally from another country. Or one that is moved by humans from one part of a country to another. Is an animal that expands its range on its own invasive? Also, I agree that logging is at least part of the problem and cannot be blamed 100% on Barred Owls.

 

[scissortail666]

B.C.'s last spotted owl faces uncertain future

The federal government will not intervene to prevent logging in spotted owl habitat in southwestern B.C.

vancouversun.com

Here is an article from my own local context. It's extremely well established that spotted owls depend on old growth forests and that habitat loss is what's driving their decline.