Having all but eliminated logging as a problem for the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now has a plan to deal with the next existential threat to the species — barred owls.

It’s a doozy.

Last week, the service proposed saving the imperiled northern spotted owl by shooting more than 400,000 barred owls in Oregon and Washington over a 30-year period.

Really.

The northern spotted owl was listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1990. To preserve owl habitat, timber harvests were reduced. The barred owl emerged more than a decade ago as another threat.

While barred owls are also protected under federal law, they are not native to the West and are plentiful throughout the Eastern U.S. and the Midwest.

The service conducted tests and found that shooting the barred owls gave the spotted owls a better chance at survival. But because of the nature of the hunt and the rules and conditions imposed by the service, this will not be an easy campaign.

The owls will be shot by contracted “removal specialists” — i.e. hunters.

Applicants must demonstrate proficiency with a shotgun — 20 gauge or larger — and the ability to tell the difference between barred and spotted owls in the low and no light conditions present when owls are active. They must also be able to humanely euthanize birds wounded, but not killed.

Hunters will need maps of the areas where they’ll operate detailing locations of dwellings, campgrounds and other places where humans might be, plus any known spotted owl nesting areas. Hunters must keep a quarter mile buffer between themselves and these areas.

To lure barred owls, hunters will set up sound equipment to broadcast the bird’s signature call. Hunters will broadcast for at least 15 minutes before moving on if no target owls are heard.

At each location, the service suggests a field of fire of no more than 30 yards. To aid in identification, owls must be stationary, and shot from the front.

The service envisions that these takings will be by two- or three-member teams — a shooter and one or two spotters.

Dead birds must be photographed, weighed, sexed, measured and then buried. Hunters must make reasonable efforts the following day to recover bodies lost in the dark. Reports must be made on birds that can’t be recovered. All reports must detail time, location and those involved in the removal.

Hunters must be armed with a list of nearby veterinarians in the event a non-target species is accidentally wounded.

More than 20,000 barred owls are to be shot the first year. Thereafter, 13,400 to 17,400 would be killed each year for 30 years. Just the paperwork could take that long, but hunters will have to shoot more than 55 birds a day the first year.

The service has not yet determined how much all of this will cost, but an unspecified number of three-man teams combing the woods for 30 years won’t come cheap.

But America’s “forever wars” are never cheap — and are rarely effective.