-Protecting Barred Owls from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Plan to kill them

To the Editor:

Recently the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has hatched a bizarre plan to kill off Barred Owls (Strix varia) to allegedly protect the habitat of their closely-related cousins, the Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis). The Barred Owl is a magnificent large predatory bird that hunts in the evening and the night for its rodent prey.

This plan is morally wrong and biologically a complete waste of time. Barred Owls are very close relatives of Spotted Owls. When their breeding territories overlap, they sometimes interbreed and produce hybrid offspring. Does the Fish and Wildlife Service also plan to kill off these hybrid offspring?

If the Barred Owls have decided to expand their eastern, central and western breeding range down into the forests of Washington, Oregon and California, nothing but mass murder will stop them from doing so. Killing Barred Owls to supposedly protect the Spotted Owl habitat in the western forests of Washington, Oregon and California would be a never-ending program.This misguided program should be ended now.

The Barred Owl is a magnificent bird that hunts in the evening and the night for its prey, mostly mice and other rodents. Its wingspan may reach four feet. Some of its descriptive traditional folknames include: Black-eyed Owl, Bottom Owl, Crazy Owl, Eight Hooter, Grey Owl, Hoot Owl, Laughing Owl, Mouse Owl, Old-folks Owl, Rain Owl, Round-headed Owl, Screech Owl, and Swamp Owl.

Please write a letter outlining your concerns about protecting the Barred Owl to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1849 "C" Street NW, Washington, DC 20242. Email letters may be submitted from their www.fws.gov/ web site.

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre, author,

North American Bird Folknames and Names (Bottlebrush Press, 1996).

18 June 2005

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