Barred owls in the Pacific NW fit the definition of a non-native species as in this example for plants from the National Invasive Species Council (Barry?s link).

Large-scale geographical barriers
First, a geographical barrier must be overcome, which often occurs as a mountain range, ocean, or similar physical barrier to movement of seeds and other reproductive plant parts. Plants that overcome geographical barriers are known as alien plants or alien species. Alien plants are non-native plants and alien species are non-native species. Therefore, non-native plants are those that occur outside their natural range boundaries, and this most often is mediated by humans either deliberately or unintentionally.

For barred owls, the Great Plains was the natural range boundary and the geographical barrier that was overcome. It?s a truly moot question whether this movement was mediated by humans. Personally, I believe it was, or else it was a monstrous coincidence that barred owls crossed the Great Plains barrier after thousands of years at the same time that extensive changes took place due to European settlement.

Millions of American bison were killed and they were one of the main drivers of Great Plains ecosystem characteristics. As illustrated by research in the Serengeti, large ungulates suppress tree growth. At the same time communities sprang up along the rivers and trees were planted. I believe this combination provided the habitat bridge to the green pastures of the Pacific NW.

I don?t believe it is correct to assume that spotted owls are doomed at this point in time. Certainly their numbers have been greatly reduced, but no one knows at what point this becomes critical. There have been historical large-scale reductions in population due to extensive forest fires. Much of the current old-growth forest on the Gifford Pinchot NF originated in the early 1700s when forest fires ravaged the entire area.

At the same time, while spotted owls have reduced in numbers at a steady rate, there appears to have been a leveling off in some areas over the last several years. There are also some areas where spotted owls are doing comparatively well. I have one valley where 11 of 12 historical spotted owl sites had spotted owls present in 2008. There were also barred owls present throughout the valley, and they had been there for at least 20 years. In that valley, the owls are co-exiting.

The areas where spotted owls have disappeared are the same as those most appealing to barred owls. Spotted owls can still be found in areas that may be less appealing to barred owls, particularly those areas with large blocks of contiguous forest. Barred owls can be found in these areas as well, but the two species in these types of areas, at least for now, appear to co-exist.

As some have pointed out, habitat is still an important element for spotted owl recovery. The Recovery Plan recognizes this and places a 10-year moratorium on the logging of any spotted owl habitat on federal land. On federal land habitat is not being lost except through forest fires, bug kill, or other natural occurrences. At the same time habitat is increasing as forest that was not quite habitat grows older. Additionally, many areas of young forest are being thinned to promote acceleration of late-successional forest characteristics.

Forest does not have to be really old to support spotted owls. Younger forest with appropriate structure can also support reproducing pairs. In my area there are areas of younger forest that 20 years ago had no spotted owls but now appear to have spotted owl presence. There will never be as much habitat as there was historically, due to extensive private land holdings; but on federal land, which provides the bulk of critical habitat for spotted owls and retains the majority of the remaining spotted owls, habitat conditions improve slightly every year.

It is important to remember that what is being proposed is an experiment, not management direction. There needs to be a scientific understanding, not an anecdotal one, of the relationship between the species to properly assess what should be done, rather than guessing. A result could be that it is determined that only widespread elimination of barred owls would meaningfully help the spotted owl. It could also be determined that this would not be practical or that small scale removal in selected high-priority areas would be enough. Or, it could be determined that the best thing to do is nothing concerning barred owls and concentrate on habitat factors that favor spotted owls.

Bob Pearson
Packwood, WA