worldpress_spottedowls-3435
"I don't like to shoot barred owls," says biologist Mark Higley with the Hoopa Valley Tribe. "I was hired to do this, so I'm going to do it." Higley is one of only a handful of people trained to lethally remove barred owls. Hoopa Valley is one of the areas that has put the most effort into removal efforts. As a result, they are seeing a rebound of northern spotted owls in the valley. "In a perfect world, we'd have 30-35 pairs," of spotted owls, says Higley. As of 2022, they had 21.