The representative Troy E. Nehls, a Texas republican, supported by 17 co-sponsors of the two political parties, introduced a resolution on Wednesday which could mark the end of a plan to protect the spotted owls in the northwest of the Pacific. The plan Calls for a shot of around 450,000 owls are 30 years in California, Oregon and Washington, because they exceed the owned owls, pushing them out of their native territory.
Spotted owls are rapidly declining. The spotted owls of the North are listed as threatened by the laws on species in California and the United States, and there may be As little as 3,000 on federal lands. Federal fauna officials proposed a protection of species in danger for two populations of spotted owls from California.
In a press release, the NEHL called the owl reduction plan, approved by the US Fish and Wildlife Service under the Biden administration, “a waste of hard taxes won of the Americans”. He estimated that it will cost $ 1.35 billion, based on a $ 4.5 million contract Awarded to the Hoopa Valley tribe in northern California last year to drive around 1,500 owls over four years. It’s about $ 3,000 per owl.
The bipartite alliance says that killing owls is also inhuman and impracticable. The co-sponsors of the resolution are made up of 11 Republicans and six Democrats, including three representatives from California-Josh Harder (D-TRACY), Adam Gray (D-Merced) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), according to the Nehls office.
This combination of photos from 2003 and 2006 shows a northern spotted owl, on the left, in the national forest of Deschutes near the Sherman camp, Oregon, and a barred owl in East Burke, VT.
(Don Ryan and Steve LeGge / Associated Press)
The effort uses the Congress Examination Act, a tool that is sometimes used in the context of new presidential administrations to cancel the rules issued by federal agencies during the last months of previous administrations. At the end of May, the Government office of responsibility has concluded The plan was subject to the law.
To stop the owl observation plan, the two chambers of the congress should adopt a joint resolution by majority vote and President Trump should sign it. In case of success, the resolution would prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service from continuing a similar rule, unless explicitly authorized by the Congress.
The plan Already faced with reverse facilities. In May, federal officials canceled three related subsidies totaling more than $ 1.1 million, of which a study This would have removed owls barred from more than 192,000 acres in the counties of Mendocino and Sonoma. Another This would have withdrawn them from the National Forest of Mendocino.
Some scientists and environmentalists say that the plan of the plan would mean the end of the spotted owls in the north. The Raptor, dark brown with brilliant white spots, Prefers old -fashioned forests. It has become the central symbol of the so-called wooden wars In the 1980s and 90s, when environmentalists and forest interests fought on the fate of ancient forests in the northwest of the Pacific. The barred owls are slightly larger, more aggressive and less picky with regard to habitat and food – giving them an advantage in competition for resources.
“If we are not going ahead with the withdrawal of the barred owls, this will mean the extinction of the spotted owl from the north, and it will probably mean the extinction of the California Spot Owl,” said Tom Wheeler, executive director of the environmental protection center last week. He pointed out to a Long -term experience in the long -term field that has shown The populations of spotted owls have stabilized in the areas where the barred owls were killed.
BARD OWLS is from eastern North America and spread to the west with European settlers that have planted trees and removed fires, believe biologists. Government scientists consider the presence of OWLS Barred in the northwest of the Pacific as an invasive, but some argue that it is an expansion of the natural distribution area.
“Protection of spotted owls is an imperative, but assaulting other native wild animals occupying the same forests is not ethical or a practical means of achieving this objective,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy, who helped galvanize the opposition to the reduction plan.
