The US Fish and Wildlife Service has revealed their final plan to kill nearly half a million owls. The motive behind the mass cull? The survival of another species of owl.

In a Final Environmental Impact Statement published this week, the agency proposed the culling of around 450,000 invasive barred owls over a period of 30 years. Half a million might sound like a lot of animals, although it’s worth noting the plan would result in the annual removal of less than 0.5 percent of the country’s barred owls. 

The proposal has been put forward as a way to protect the Northern spotted owl, a native species in western North America that is becoming increasingly threatened due to competition from the larger and faster-reproducing barred owl. The growing range of the invasive owl could also jeopardize the future of another related species, the California spotted owl.

“Barred owl management is not about one owl versus another. Without actively managing barred owls, northern spotted owls will likely go extinct in all or the majority of their range, despite decades of collaborative conservation efforts,” Kessina Lee, Oregon State Supervisor at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement. 

Barred owls are native to eastern North America, but started moving west of the Mississippi River at the beginning of the 20th century due to human-induced changes in the Great Plains and northern boreal forests. 

Despite looking similar to Northern spotted owls, barred owls are larger, more aggressive, and can readily adapt their broad diet. Their invasion of the West has put a heavy strain on the Northern spotted owl, decreasing their populations by up to 65 to 85 percent between 1995 and 2017 in some areas. 

If the plan goes ahead, trained professionals and landowners will be allowed to shoot the barred owls in around half of the areas where spotted and invasive barred owls co-exist within the northern spotted owl’s range. Public hunting of barred owls will not be allowed.

Some might wonder whether it's morally right to kill one species to save another. However, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is required to protect threatened animals like the Northern spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act. According to the agency's research, this cull is the best way to achieve that. 

“Barred owl removal, like all invasive species management, is not something the Service takes lightly. The Service has a legal responsibility to do all it can to prevent the extinction of the federally listed northern spotted owl and support its recovery, while also addressing significant threats to California spotted owls,” explained Lee.

The plans aren’t sitting well with everyone, though. Along with raising ethical and practical concerns, animal rights groups have criticized the cost of the plan: an estimated $235,000,000, making it one of the most expensive endangered species management projects ever.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is turning from protector to persecutor of American wildlife. Its plan is wildly expensive without protecting a single acre of forest habitat, and it is doomed to fail because there’s no way for the agency to prevent surviving owls from recolonizing nest sites,” Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, said in a statement.

“Every sensible person wants to save spotted owls from extinction, but strategies that kill a half-million look-a-like forest owls must be taken off the table in violating our norms about proper treatment of any native owl species in North America,” Pacelle added.