COLUMN: Is barred owl killing to be barred?

It is now illegal to kill non-game, native bird species in the U.S., including all owls. That’s been the case since 1918 thanks to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. 

Over a century later the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service pilot projects pay organizations to exterminate our American barred owl under the rationale they are an existential threat to a close cousin, the spotted owl.  They can interbreed, producing “sparred owl” offspring.  

The spotted owl…