Wherever you go, there they are.

Over the past century or so, barred owls have swooped across North America from east to west, inspiring wonder, admiration, and fear about the future of other owls, often all at once. Their story is complicated, as are the labels people attach to them. Are they native or not? And what can their presence in the Pacific Northwest reveal about what it means to belong to a place at this particular moment in history?

Came across this very nice article about the Barred Owl.

As opposed to most recent articles about the Barred Owl being about the pending elimination of a large chunk of the western population of them, this article focuses on how the Barred Owl made its westward journey, why they have been so successful, and the problems resulting from environmental changes expanding the habitat of one species while shrinking it for others.

There are many great facts and photos. It’s not written in a clickbait style. It’s a longer article, but it’s not fluffed up, just full of info. I really recommend you give it a read.

  • anon6789OP
    4•5 months ago

    Each of the owl experts I speak with gives a long exhale when I ask if killing almost half a million barred owls is a good idea. The world is a richer place with northern spotted owls, they say. There is no protecting northern spotted owls without old-growth forest protection, they say. Killing barred owls to save northern spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest is a forever war, they say.

    Each has sympathy for colleagues who have spent decades trying to save spotted owls, to little avail. And none believes that we should give up on a species whose loss is directly tied to human activities. But at the same time, nature is dynamic and change is inevitable. Barred owls are simply doing what any species would do: seizing opportunities to expand their range and grow their population. For better or worse, their evolutionary journey has perfectly positioned them to thrive now, amid a human-altered landscape, in habitat that has welcomed and encouraged all manner of native wildlife to proliferate beyond their historical boundaries—from red foxes to yellow-faced bumblebees to raccoons.