Lawmakers want to stop the killing of nearly half a million Barred Owls

By Damien Alvarado

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    OREGON (KDRV) — A group of bipartisan Oregon lawmakers called on Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, heads of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to stop the planned killing nearly half a million barred owls in the Pacific Northwest.

The federal plan approved by the Biden Administration in September 2024, is designed to reduce social competition between range-expanding barred owls and their close cousins, the Northern and California spotted owls.

In a news release four rural lawmakers cited its impracticality and its runaway price tag of $1.35 billion.

The lawmakers are Representative Ed Diehl (R-Linn and Marion counties), Representative David Gomberg (D-Lincoln and Western Benton/Lane counties), Representative Virgle Osborne, (R-Douglas county) and returning legislator, Senator-elect Bruce Starr, (R-Yamhill and Polk counties).

“The plan to kill upwards of 450,000 barred owls over a 30-year time horizon and across vast reaches of private and public lands in three states is thoroughly impractical,” wrote the set of four lawmakers. “It just cannot work, and it won’t work. It is a budget buster, with one well-grounded estimate putting the cost of the plan at $1.35 billion over the intended life of the project.”

The release also shares, the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action came up with an estimate of $1.35 million for the 30-year barred owl kill plan – or about $45,000,000 a year. That cost estimate is taken from a recent grant of $4.5 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to the Hoopa Valley Tribe to kill 1,500 of the forest owls. The price tag is $3,000 per bird, and using that figure as a baseline cost, it will add up to a government expense of $1.35 billion to execute the broad plan.

There is not a pool of thousands of individuals who will volunteer to do the killing, and it is expected that the individuals doing the shooting across millions of acres – including within Crater Lake National Park – will require compensation for the arduous, night-time hunts.

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