Northern spotted owls are probably doomed in Washington in the next decade unless barred owls are sacrificed, according to a new report by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Related species rarely co-exist, and barred owls have the edge. Barred owls reproduce and disperse faster and have a wider taste in prey and habitat than do spotted owls.

Unless wildlife managers intervene, spotted owls are likely to soon become too few to ever recover in Washington, even with other conservation actions, the report warns.

“Barred owl competition is the greatest direct factor driving the current and continued population decline of the spotted owl and may limit the positive effects of other conservation actions in the near term,” the report reads.

Federal protections

Spotted owls have been federally protected since 1990 and on the state endangered species list since 1988. Fish and Wildlife periodically reviews the status of endangered species. The only thing that’s changed is that northern spotted owls are more likely to disappear from the state, the review concludes.

The review affirms previous findings by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, which has experimented with killing barred owls in Washington, Oregon and California to make room for spotted owls.

Some 463 barred owls were removed near Cle Elum, Wash., in the east-central Cascade Range between 2015 and 2019, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Since barred owls are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, federal wildlife managers will decide whether to remove more barred owls.

Fish and Wildlife’s review focuses on spotted owls in and around Olympic and Mount Rainier national parks, and on federal forestland near Cle Elum.

Federal and state regulations have cut the amount of owl habitat lost to logging, but the spotted owl population has dropped by nearly 75% at Mount Rainier and more than 80% in the Olympics and Cle Elum.

“The decline of spotted owls has not subsided in Washington and the population has become critically imperiled,” the review reads.

The review does not estimate the spotted owl population.

“It is difficult to estimate the exact population number of northern spotted owls in Washington because there are so few remaining on the landscape,” Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Becar said in an email.

The review also notes that a century of fire suppression created owl habitat, but also created the conditions for large fires, insects and diseases that wipe out owl habitat.

Barred owls are trespassers

To wildlife agencies, barred owls are trespassers in forests occupied by spotted owls.

Barred owls migrated from the East and arrived in the Northwest in the early 1970s. Barred owls were established in northern Washington by the 1980s and moved south in what the federal Fish and Wildlife agency calls an “invasion front.”

The agency announced in 2022 it planned to study removing more barred owls to help northern spotted owls and to keep barred owls from encroaching on California spotted owls.

Douglas County, Oregon, commissioners urged the agency to go-ahead.

Restrictions on logging devastated timber towns in Oregon, Washington and California and didn’t work, the commissioners commented. “Thankfully, there appears to be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.”