Your article on shooting barred owls caused me to revisit my biological training 65 years ago. We learned that a species was a group of organisms with common characteristics capable of interbreeding and producing viable offspring. Species variation was called biodiversity and was important for species adaptation to evolutionary pressures. I believe these operative definitions are still accepted today.

As part of my master’s program in the early 1960s I took an ornithology course (study of birds). We examined how isolation could be important in speciation. The ice age was a classic example where species have developed.

For various reasons a species might expand their range. If that happened, and they bred freely with another similarly evolved species and their offspring were viable, they were of the same species.

We learned there were a couple of eastern species beginning to move westward: the yellow-shafted Flickers (Colaptes auatus) east of the Rocky Mountains and the Red-shafted (Colaptes cafer) west of the Rocky Mountains. There also was the Barred Owls (Strix varia) east of the Rocky Mountains and Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis) west of the Rocky Mountain.

Over time the eastern species moved westward. When they did they bred with the western species producing viable offspring. After observing this for a number of years, scientists did an interesting thing. They determined the Flicker should be recognized as a single species now called Northern Flicker (Colaptes auatus). In the case of the Owl, the offspring are viable and are called Sparred Owl, but not recognized as being of the same species.

I recognize the Spotted Owl has had a much greater influence on the Northwest than has the Flicker. The millions proposed to kill the Barred Owl would be a small part of the total picture. The statement that the Barred Owl could affect the entire ecosystem is so speculative it has no business being in a scientific report. I recognize that some USFWS biologists have become guilty of “cooking the books” because of the money involved, personal advancement with an ideological group, or a desire to achieve a particular goal. 

It is time for these wildlife managers to stop playing Mother Nature. Accept the fact the Barred Owl, Spotted Owl and Sparred Owl are of the same species. Maybe the Sparred Owl will be the evolutionary survivor.

According to your article, comments to the USFWS were due Nov. 17. They will have to accept this open letter as my comment.

Carlisle Harrison

Hermiston, Ore.