![\"Condor,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-03-01_20-58-10-194-e1740891524239.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n WASHINGTON D.C.\u2013\u2013<\/strong>Five weeks into the second Donald Trump administration,\u00a0 <\/strong>the only birds faring well appear to be budget hawks,\u00a0 a lately much feared metaphorical species,\u00a0 and vultures picking the bones of whatever remains of the U.S. National Park Service,\u00a0 National Forest Service,\u00a0 and Fish & Wildlife Service after extensive staff cuts.<\/p>\n There is still faint hope that newly appointed Fish & Wildlife Service director Brian Nesvik will ax the $1.35 billion departmental plan to kill as many as 450,000 barred owls over the next 30 years in a \u201cHail Mary\u201d effort to preserve the estimated population of 3,000 to 5,200 endangered northern spotted owls on federal land.<\/p>\n The idea is to protect spotted owls from from habitat competition,\u00a0 without stopping logging in and around the old growth forests that are the threatened spotted owls\u2019 only habitat.<\/p>\n (See Hey Musk & Ramaswamy: save $1.35 billion! Ax the barred owl-killing scheme!<\/a><\/em><\/strong>)<\/em><\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Nesvik,\u00a0 44,\u00a0 director of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department from 2019 until his retirement in 2024,\u00a0\u00a0is believed to be more likely to job out the planned barred owl massacre,\u00a0 authorized by the Joe Biden administration,\u00a0 to sport hunters.<\/p>\n Nesvik in Wyoming pandered to sport hunters on every topic that came before him:\u00a0 conservation of elk,\u00a0 wolves,\u00a0 grizzly bears,\u00a0 even chasing down and crushing wolves with snowmobiles.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (See Trump picks RFK Jr., Gabbard, Nesvik, Patel, & Usha Vance: hope or barf?<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If shooting barred owls is delegated to sport hunters,\u00a0 indications are that the hunters will be working with even less guidance and supervision in which owls they kill,\u00a0 where,\u00a0 than they supposedly were to have when the scheme surfaced.<\/p>\n \u201cEach spring,\u201d\u00a0 explained Alex Baumhardt for the Oregon Capital Chronicle<\/em> on February 26, 2025, \u00a0\u201cthe U.S. Forest Service hires dozens of seasonal biologists to venture into remote Northwest forests on federal land and set up acoustic recorders to monitor for sounds indicating the presence of northern spotted owls.<\/p>\n The federal hiring freeze imposed by Trump minutes after his inauguration on January 20,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 \u201cmeans the Forest Service cannot hire the more than 40 seasonal scientists to count the owls, \u00a0according to Taal Levi, \u00a0an associate professor of wildlife biology at Oregon State University who works on the owl monitoring project.<\/p>\n Barred owl. (Beth Clifton photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe monitoring typically involves about 60 scientists working from central California to Canada, \u00a0Levi said,\u201d\u00a0 only 20 of them full-time staff.<\/p>\n The hiring freeze,\u00a0 Baumhardt added,\u00a0 \u201calso means the agency will likely go without dozens more scientists needed to monitor threatened and endangered salmon, \u00a0frogs, \u00a0and other fragile species, \u00a0according to Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n Continued Baumhardt,\u00a0 \u201cDamon Lesmeister, \u00a0a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service who has led federal owl monitoring projects for years, told the Capital Chronicle<\/em> he can no longer talk to journalists without permission from the agency\u2019s public affairs staff. \u00a0And an unnamed spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not respond to questions.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Emailed Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle to ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong>,\u00a0 \u201cThis is just one more reason why the barred owl kill plan,\u201d\u00a0 which his organizations have sued to try to stop, \u00a0\u201cwon\u2019t work.\u00a0 Even if the U.S. Forest Service and Fish & Wildlife Service were fully staffed, \u00a0and had a billion dollars to throw around, \u00a0nothing would stop surviving barred owls \u2013 and there are plenty of them \u2013 from claiming the nesting sites recently purged of their conspecifics [spotted owls].<\/p>\n \u201cNature fills the vacuum,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle recited, \u00a0\u201cand in this case, \u00a0it means barred owls will reclaim territory.\u00a0 With fewer personnel, \u00a0and fewer dollars, \u00a0the kill plan will be less robust, \u00a0and it will be even easier for barred owls to fill in the gaps.\u00a0 The plan was unworkable even at full capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n Spotted owl, grizzly bear, & hunter.<\/strong><\/em> Picked up Pacelle a day later,\u00a0 in an email to supporters on February 27,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThe \u2018hoot and shoot,\u2019\u00a0 as it is locally known \u2014 is a bad idea whose days are numbered.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the get-go,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle reminded,\u00a0 \u201cwe\u2019ve said that these night-time owl shoots would invariably fall short of the goal of protecting spotted owls because the control area is a staggering 24 million acres. \u00a0Not only would the plan require a small army of sharpshooters to find and shoot these nocturnal birds, \u00a0but nothing would stop surviving owls in the surrounding area from flying in and replacing them. \u00a0The plan would put the federal government on a never-ending owl-killing treadmill.<\/p>\n \u201cNow,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle hoped,\u00a0 \u201cwith the Trump Administration cutting programs, \u00a0this plan should itself be a high-priority targeting for sidelining. \u00a0Conducting a scaled-down kill will be even more futile.\u00a0 It will be that much easier for surviving owls to replace the owls shot by the hunters.<\/p>\n Barred owl rests on a branch.<\/strong><\/em> \u201cThe American public,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle asserted, \u00a0\u201cdoesn\u2019t want its own government to conduct the world\u2019s largest-ever raptor slaughter. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t want owl shooting in 14 units of the National Park Service in the Pacific Northwest. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t want the Endangered Species Act to be used as a sword to allow an assault on a North American native species. \u00a0And it doesn\u2019t want to spend taxpayer money on a scheme that cannot work.\u201d<\/p>\n So far,\u00a0 though,\u00a0 the closest approach of the Trump administration to evincing any interest in owls have been visits to Hooter\u2019s.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Pacelle on February 23,\u00a0 2025 also expressed hope in an email to Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy supporters that the Trump administration,\u00a0 Congress, \u00a0and state legislatures might belatedly act to end all use of lead ammunition.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody should use bullets that keep killing long after discharged from a firearm,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle began.\u00a0 \u201cBut that\u2019s exactly what happens when hunters load lead rounds into their shotguns and rifles, take aim at their quarry, \u00a0and scatter lead throughout the biotic community.<\/p>\n \u201cThink of 10 million hunters, fanning out across America\u2019s forests and fields, \u00a0hitting and missing quarry,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle explained.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cActing independently but with dangerous cumulative impact, \u00a0they inject wild animals and pollute the wild with toxic bullets and fragments on more than a billion acres of public and private lands.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a hunter dresses out a deer, \u00a0elk, \u00a0moose, \u00a0or pronghorn,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle detailed,\u00a0 \u201cif he has used lead, \u00a0the carcass will be riddled with toxic fragments, \u00a0many of them too small to spot and remove.\u00a0 The hunter need not ask the consumer\u2014family, \u00a0friend, \u00a0or foodbank customer\u2013\u2013if they want lead with their venison. It\u2019s infused in meat and marrow.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the kill site, \u00a0he also leaves behind the skin, \u00a0sinew, \u00a0bones, \u00a0blood,\u00a0 organs, \u00a0hooves, \u00a0and other parts of the animal\u2019s body\u2014a \u2018gut pile\u2019 that is a smorgasbord for eagles, \u00a0vultures, \u00a0foxes,\u201d\u00a0 and other scavenging species,\u00a0 including California condors,\u00a0 a critically endangered species ranging over the entire U.S. southwest.\u201d<\/p>\n American bald eagle on top.of an old barn. (Beth Clifton photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Pacelle mentioned an \u201ceight-year study of 1,210 bald and golden eagles across 38 states,\u00a0 co-authored by dozens of wildlife scientists,\u201d\u00a0 earlier reported by ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong>,\u00a0 \u201cwho \u201cdetermined that up to 47% of eagles had \u2018bone lead concentrations above thresholds for chronic poisoning.\u2019 \u00a0According to the study, \u00a0a third of eagles had \u201cacute [lead] poisoning.\u201d<\/p>\n (See Sluggish on getting the lead out: feds again play pro-hunting politics<\/a> and Bald eagles get national honors & more lead shot in their guts for Christmas<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Suggested Pacelle,\u00a0 \u201cThere may be more than 20 million wild animals of all species who die every year from lead poisoning,\u201d\u00a0 including as well as scavenging species,\u00a0 \u201cground-feeding birds mistaking the lead fragments for seeds.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Waterfowl also suffer from ingesting lead shot and fishing sinkers lost in the bottom sediments where ducks,\u00a0 geese,\u00a0 and swans dabble for their food.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than a generation ago,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle recalled,\u00a0 \u201cover the objections of the National Rifle Association and other extreme hunting groups, \u00a0the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1991 banned the use of lead ammunition in waterfowl hunting [at National Wildlife Refuges].<\/p>\n \u201cBut state wildlife agencies\u2014often repeating the mantra that they engage in science-based wildlife management\u2014continue to allow and excuse lead bullets in all states but California,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle continued.<\/p>\nTrump administration may turn scheme to kill 450,000 barred owls over to sport hunters<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSport hunters may be asked to kill owls to save money<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nFederal owl biologist corps down by two-thirds<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nU.S. Forest Service muzzled<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cNature fills the vacuum\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThe hoot & shoot\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Beth Clifton photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nVisits to Hooter\u2019s<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n10 million hunters scatter lead across the land<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nToxic fragments<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n47% of eagles suffer from lead poisoning<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nLead shot banned at National Wildlife Refuges since 1991<\/h2>\n