[Tweeters] (DR: The political illustrations are notable)—-"Kill the barred owls!agree U.S. Senate Democrats with Republicans” - Animals 24-7

[Steve Hampton via Tweeters]

Thanks, Dan, for sharing this. It's a bit of a bizarre article, positing
that saving Spotted Owls will allow more logging. I didn't follow the
logic.

But the larger issue is the widespread assumption that this is a budgeted
plan with an allocation of millions of dollars. In fact, all along the
"plan" is nothing more than a permit (a "take permit" from the USFWS under
certain conditions) -- it comes with no budget, no staffing, and needs
volunteer donation of staff time from other agencies to be implemented. In
short, it will never be implemented in a widespread way. I described this
in my Post Alley article here:

*No, They’re not Really Going to Shoot 450,000 Owls
<https://www.postalley.org/2024/09/12/no-theyre-not-really-going-to-shoot-450000-owls/>*

Things got wonkier this summer when a Texas Republican identified the
project as wasteful government spending - even though it had a budget of $0
- and went on a crusade against it, which was picked up by right-wing
media. This was during the DOGE era. Then the legislator and the right-wing
media started citing each other. It was an example of bad math, bad
legislative staff work, and bad journalism. He was just using it to blow
his horn. I explained that here:
*The bad owl math that haunts us*
<https://substack.com/home/post/p-169221688>

Now it seems that Dems and Reps have simply let the permit stand, with a
budget of zero, and are leaving it alone.

To my knowledge, the only place where owl removal has occurred is in
northern California, where the Barred Owl expansion is still young and many
Spotted Owls still remain. I've not heard that any agencies - federal,
state, local, or tribal - in WA have participated in it yet.





On Sun, Nov 2, 2025 at 5:35 AM Dan Reiff via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> Tweeters,

> I found this current article to be an interesting read.

> The political illustrations are notable.

>

> A past five year program covering the area below  Blewett Pass resulted in

> what I found to be observable signs of success.

>

> Please understand that just because I post an article doesn’t mean that I

> agree with the content or opinions.

>

> To view other current articles from other sources, Google some of the key

> words of this Subject line.

> Steve Hampton also wrote a past, thoughtful article regarding the

> controversies regarding eliminating some Barred Owls in carefully selected

> locations.

> Dan Reiff, PhD

>

>

> https://www.animals24-7.org/2025/10/30/kill-the-barred-owls-agree-u-s-senate-democrats-with-republicans/

>

> Sent from my iPhone

> _______________________________________________

> Tweeters mailing list

> Tweeters at u.washington.edu

> http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

>



-- 
Steve Hampton
Port Townsend, WA  (qatáy)
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