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East Oregonian
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Has killing barred owls done any good?
By ERIC MORTENSON
EO Media Group
Federal wildlife researchers
killed 737 invasive barred owls in
2015-16 in an ongoing experiment
to determine if removing them
will aid the recovery of Northern
spotted owls, the bird whose
threatened status was at the center
of the Pacific Northwest timber
wars.
Spotted owl populations have
continued to decline rapidly despite
environmental lawsuits, protection
under the Endangered Species Act
and logging restrictions in the old
growth timber habitat they favor.
Barred owls, which are larger, more
aggressive and feed on a wider
variety of prey, have taken over
spotted owl territory throughout
their range in Oregon, Washington
and Northern California.
Scientists with U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and U.S.
Geological Survey, partnering with
the Forest Service and Bureau
of Land Management, agreed to
an experiment: Kill hundreds of
barred owls in the Cle Elum area
of Washington, the Oregon Coast
Range and Klamath-Union-Myrtle
areas of Oregon and Hoopa Valley
tribal land in Northern California.
In Oregon and Washington, field
crews shot 642 barred owls using
12 gauge shotguns and captured
one owl alive, turning it over to the
Oregon High Desert Museum in
Bend.
In Northern California, where
early research by the late Lowell
Diller of Humboldt State University
documented that spotted owls
reclaimed nesting areas after barred
owls were removed, researchers
killed 95 of the competitors.
High stakes
Ranchers and farmers in the
Pacific Northwest have a stake
in Endangered Species Act and
wildlife restoration projects
undertaken by government
agencies. They often referred to the
potential rangeland restrictions that
might accompany an ESA listing
for greater sage grouse as “the
spotted owl on steroids.” They’ve
also dealt with wolves spreading
into the four states and attacking
livestock.
Northern spotted owls were
listed as threatened under the ESA
in 1990, which greatly reduced
logging in the Pacific Northwest,
Courtesy of Ray Bosch, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Researcher Zachary Hanna of
the Museum of Vertebrate Zo-
ology and California Academy
of Sciences collects tissue sam-
ples from a barred owl killed in
a project to benefit threatened
northern spotted owls in the
Pacific Northwest.
especially on federal land. Their
continued decline could result in it
getting listed as endangered, which
might bring even more restrictions
on human activities in the woods.
So far, nothing has worked. The
Northwest Forest Plan set aside
18.5 million acres of the older
forests that spotted owls prefer,
“But then the barred owl emerged
as a threat capable of sweeping
through the entire range of the
northern spotted owl,” researcher
Diller wrote in a 2013 magazine
article.
Barred owls are from the East
Coast and appear to have moved
west over the decades, following
development. They are 15 to 20
percent larger than spotted owls,
which Diller called “the human
equivalent of a heavyweight going
up against a middleweight.”
Working on forest land owned
by Green Diamond Resource
Co., and with federal permission,
Diller and fellow researchers
killed dozens of barred owls over
five years and documented the
return of spotted owls. The work
had startling results. Spotted owls
“rapidly re-occupied” areas where
barred owls were removed, Diller
wrote. In one case, a female spotted
owl returned to a nesting site seven
years after she’d been last seen.
Overall, Diller’s work
showed “removal of barred owls
in combination with habitat
conservation could slow or even
reverse population declines at a
local scale.”
Researchers don’t know if that
success will be repeated.
‘Sophie’s Choice’
“It’s way too early to say,” said
David Wiens, a raptor ecologist
with USGS. Diller’s work was
Nonprofit horse ranch turns focus toward humans
By KURT LIEDTKE
Herald and News
Since 1998, the Butterfly Ranch
in Silver Lake has tried to save
abused, abandoned and neglected
animals with the hope of eventu-
ally finding them new homes.
Now, the 501c3 nonprofit hopes
to turn its attention to rehabilitating
humans in need through equine
therapy.
A family operation, the 40-acre
ranch tucked away northwest of
the small rural community in Lake
County is a small property with a
big heart. It is overseen by Matt
and Rachel Wilson with assistance
by their daughters.
The Butterfly Ranch has been
a new home for many abandoned
or neglected animals, specializing
in horses for treatment and on-site
long-term care, with the hope of
providing a second chance at a
loving home.
Despite
the
ever-present
demand for this service, the ranch
operated at a loss, the majority
of its roughly $42,000 estimated
annual operating costs coming
directly out of the family’s private
resources.
Throughout its operations, the
Wilsons, who are also accom-
plished musicians and artists,
have tried to expand its activities
to garner a more rounded interest
such as hosting clinics, youth
camps and summer arts and music
camps. The couple also comprise
a popular acoustic folk duo,
Wampus Cat, and tour extensively
across the West Coast while also
hosting an annual Lake County
music festival fundraiser — The
Wildhorse Opry.
Their music act is a symbiotic
relationship with the Butterfly
Ranch’s purpose, each concert an
opportunity to educate and fund-
raise for the ranch’s life-saving
operations.
The duo recently released a
new music video for their single,
“Bathsheba,” filmed on location
at the Butterfly Ranch, for an
upcoming CD release this summer.
Rehabilitation
Now the Butterfly Ranch plans
to take a new direction, modifying
its focus as rehabilitation for
people through animal-related
activities.
Returning to its original mission
statement, the ranch hopes to focus
its efforts on working with families
Kurt Liedtke /The Herald And News
In this April 2017 photo, Rachel Wilson, of the Butterfly Ranch in
Silver Lake makes the morning rounds feeding an assortment of
rescued animals being rehabilitated for eventual re-adoption.
and individuals who have suffered
trauma or are at-risk, pairing them
with skill-building opportunities
by working directly with horses.
Although neither are certified
counselors, Rachel Wilson is
working toward a masters in
psychology.
Equine therapy has been used
effectively in drug rehabilitation
programs as a way to focus and
recover from mental and physical
trauma, a path the Wilsons hope to
follow as well.
“We want to work with individ-
uals who may be suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder,
have failing marriages or come
from broken families and help
them reconnect through working
with horses,” said Rachel Wilson.
“It would also be a skill-
building setting, where people
with community service require-
ments or at-risk teens and others
who want to get back to nature,
can work with wild horses outside
of the typical aspects found at a
general youth roping school or
youth camp. It has great rehab
potential, reconnecting and rejuve-
nating relationships where people
depend on equine for therapy.”
To achieve this goal, Wilson
is preparing grant submissions
totaling $2.7 million to construct
indoor and outdoor riding facilities
complete with barn and lodge to
house a fully-operational equine
therapy facility.
Wilson hopes that with grant
support and sponsorships, the
facility could be operational as
early as next year. The lodge would
also be available for weddings,
business conferences, artisan
getaways, clinics and other events.
Outdoor therapy
The ranch hosts an annual
summer teepee camp, dubbed
Cow Camp Silver Lake, allowing
camping grounds in Native Amer-
ican style teepees with therapy
trail rides and basic amenities
provided. The Wilsons plan to
install a solar-powered shower and
outdoor arena this year to add to
the camping experience.
“We have tried to involve the
community in so many different
ways,” said Wilson. “To be able
to share horses, we offered up so
many different things that our
personal skills could provide. Now
we’re staying focused on what we
love and what we feel we should
be doing by providing therapy to
people through horses.”
Equine therapy has proven
effective at various rehabilitation
facilities across the country as an
alternative to traditional medical
detoxification practices. It is
purely a mental and motor-skill
practice requiring close concentra-
tion while establishing a relation-
ship with an animal that cannot
otherwise communicate. Rather
than verbal skills the connection
required with the animal is based
on different skills not normally
utilized in human relationships.
“There’s
something
very
calming about having a conversa-
tion with a silent partner, someone
that does not verbalize,” explained
Wilson.
“Working with a horse requires
disconnecting
from
verbal
communication, it forces people
to be silent and observe. It takes
people out of the anxieties of the
world and various PTSD triggers,
removing the comfort zone and
placing a person in new surround-
ings. It’s not based on emotions,
but drawing beyond normal
behavior.”
Wilson noted that the exten-
sive mental focus and symbiotic
partnership required to complete
specific tasks with a therapeutic
equine partner brings on a quiet-
ness to a near-meditative state,
withdrawing a person from the
stress of the normal world and
focusing only on the animal. This
results in a greater sense of success
when tasks are achieved, having a
tangible positive impact on human
emotions and behavior.
Silent communciation
“Inevitably the animal connects
with the person, and they gain
a silent confidant that they can
grow very attached to, building a
trust that may otherwise be broken
which has led to that individual’s
PTSD, pain and inability to
communicate,” said Wilson.
“That person can now find new
ways to trust by connecting with
an animal, and a horse will do that
every time. They want to have the
motivation to accomplish another
task, whereas before depression
or anger may be so deep that
there is a blockage in performing
any task.”
Wilson reiterated that they are
very careful to match a person
with the right horse to create what
she calls a very real and spiritual
connection between human and
animal.
“There is a great power in
horses, people gain self-esteem
and their emotional core begins to
reconstruct with that cornerstone
of trust,” added Wilson.
“People who have been abused
start seeing their ability to assert
themselves in a positive healthy
way when they have to be a leader.
It makes for positive giving and
desire to achieve a goal. We can
really see in abused neglected and
broken souls, especially women
and children; give them a horse and
they start to soften and self-esteem
grows and suddenly they’re able to
communicate without aggression
or fear.”
“definitive evidence” that spotted
owls’ decline was reversed on
Green Diamond Resource land,
but conditions elsewhere are much
different, Wiens said. The Oregon
Coast Range, for example, has
a much higher density of barred
owls, he said.
Even if it does work, land
managers might be required to
revisit areas and shoot more barred
owls to keep them at bay.
Lingering in the background is
whether wildlife biologists should
be killing barred owls at all.
“It is gut-wrenching,” said
Wiens, the USGS raptor ecologist.
“It is for all of us.”
He said barred owls are an apex
predator that has “completely taken
over” spotted owl habitat. “This
experiment is a way to get a handle
on that.”
Lowell Diller, who died in
March, once called it a “Sophie’s
Choice” dilemma.
“Shooting a beautiful raptor
that is remarkably adaptable and
fit for its new environment seems
unpalatable and ethically wrong,”
he wrote in Wildlife Professional
magazine in 2013. “But the choice
to do nothing is also unpalatable,
and I believe also ethically wrong.”
If human action such as logging
caused major alterations to spotted
owl habitat, and development
paved the way for barred owls
to move west, “Don’t we have a
societal responsibility to at least
give them a fighting chance to
survive?” Diller asked.
Hells Canyon
chinook season
opens April 22
East Oregonian
Spring chinook season will
open in Hells Canyon on April
22 from the Dug Bar boat ramp
to the boundary below Hells
Canyon Dam.
Snake River spring chinook
are currently making their way
up the Columbia River headed
for Hells Canyon.
“While we don’t expect
these fish to arrive for a few
weeks, we want anglers to have
access as soon as they do,”
said Jeff Yanke, ODFW fish
biologist in Enterprise. “This
has been a popular opportunity
in recent years and is a good
chance to catch some springers
close to home.”
The daily bag limit is four
spring chinook per day with no
more than two being adults over
24 inches. Anglers must stop
fishing for salmon for the day
when they have retained four
salmon or two adult salmon,
whichever comes first. Barbless
hooks and a Columbia River
Basin Endorsement are required
when fishing for salmon,
steelhead and sturgeon in the
Snake River. All other 2017
sport fishing regulations apply.
Due to limited access in this
section, most anglers access
this fishery below Hells Canyon
Dam or by jet boat.
Managers with the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
and Idaho Fish and Game
expect a modest run of about
2,000 hatchery spring Chinook
to return to Hells Canyon Dam.
“Unfortunately, chinook runs
have been lagging in recent
years due to unfavorable ocean
conditions,” said Yanke.
Snake River spring chinook
enter the Columbia river during
early spring and travel nearly
600 miles past eight dams to
reach Hells Canyon Dam These
fish are raised at Rapid River
Hatchery in Idaho with funds
provided by the Idaho Power
Company.
Have an adventure story?
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eastoregonian.com