The federal government has outlined a strategy for protecting the threatened northern spotted owl population: killing barred owls, which compete with them for territory. The proliferation of barred owls is threatening northern spotted owls across their range, which extends from British Columbia down to Marin County. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed lethally removing barred owls to protect northern spotted owls, which have been listed as an endangered species since 1990. The U.S.F.W.S is taking public comments on a draft environmental impact statement assessing the strategy until 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16. The strategy would be voluntary, but the service would encourage all agencies managing federal lands to follow it, including the National Park Service. Opponents of the plan argue that the primary threat to spotted owls is habitat loss due to logging and drought. “There are very few barred owls here,” said Mary McAllister, an Oakland resident who runs a blog called Conservation Sense and Nonsense. “Killing them is utterly pointless, because it does absolutely nothing about the actual threats.” Ms. McAllister estimates that the proposed strategy could result in the killing of 470,000 barred owls in Washington, Oregon and California over the next 30 years. She pointed to a recent Point Blue Conservation Science survey of known northern spotted owl nesting areas on lands adjacent to or owned by Marin County Parks and the Marin Municipal Water District. The study showed the population has held relatively steady over the last decade and it confirmed the presence of only two barred owls in 2023. But the National Park Service has documented seven barred owls on lands managed by the Point Reyes National Seashore over the last five years, said Dave Press, a wildlife biologist who manages the park’s natural and cultural resource programs. The park had six of them lethally shot, and the only one found in 2023 left the area before it could be shot. The low numbers of barred owls here mean Marin is one of the last areas in the western U.S. where it’s not too late to stop barred owls from driving out their rivals, Mr. Press said. He endorsed the new strategy and would recommend implementing it in the seashore if it is adopted after it clears a federally required environmental review. “Marin County is the last area within the entire range of the northern spotted owl that has not been completely saturated by barred owls,” he said. “If we allow one or two to show up every year and we don’t do anything about it, then eventually Marin is going to get saturated, too.” Learn more about the proposed plan and comment at http://tinyurl.com/owl-plan