Sula

Goddammit Victoria why are you doing this to me

I can offer the use of a 4runner and an ice axe lol

its uhh... 1.4 GB 😂

(if you read this whole thread, thank you. If you liked this style of content, please let me know!)

I wish I didn't see this owl. But I am infinitely grateful that I did.

/End

When I saw that Barred Owl. I wish I wasn't seeing him. I wish I saw a Spotted instead. As I stood there in the mossy forests, this entire situation ran through my head. In those dark, mysterious, eyes lies a universe of contradiction.

21/

Does that mean we should sacrifice the Spotteds? Also no. I will mourn for the individual Barred Owls that will be culled, but I will mourn more for the Spotted Owls teetering on the brink.

If there is anything I've learned in my abbreviated career, it is that there will always been pain

20/

When I saw that barred owl yesterday, I greatly enjoyed spending an hour watching it. It is a beautiful creature.

He does not know that he is killing his cousins. Is it fair that he and his species will die for simply doing what they evolved to do? No.

19/

For me, I think one of my greatest strengths is as a story teller. That's why I'm writing this thread. Its something I can do right now.

I have resigned myself that I will watch species I care about go extinct. We will try, but we will inevitably fail at some point. I want to bear witness.

18/

I do not feel safe being a trans woman working for the federal government right now, even if there were jobs still available.

I will keep trying to do what I can to help conservation until I can get back to the field I trained for in a better time.

17/

It is a tough time to be involved in wildlife conservation. We're staring down a sixth mass extinction, one largely of our own making.

To know and love wildlife is a life of pain. I cannot currently work in my field because Trump destroyed the funding and most of the jobs are federal

16/

I am not an expert on Spotted Owl conservation, I'm just a girl with a BS in Wildlife Biology who knows that this field is not all rainbows and sunshine and some times we have to take tough actions to try and save what we can.

15/

I truly don't know if this will work. In many ways I think the Spotted Owls are too far gone here in Washington and Oregon. There is some hope for the California species, but we are getting down to the wire.

This is not to say we shouldn't try.

14/

Barred Owl populations have exploded in the PNW, and it may be the final nail in the coffin for Spotted Owls. The US Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a plan to remove (read: kill) over 400,000 Barred Owls from the PNW over the next 30 years in a last ditch effort to save the Spotteds.

13/

Following the trees, they found paradise among the PNW's forests. Unlike the specialist Northern Spotted Owls, Barred Owls are generalists. Larger, bolder, more aggressive - they quickly began out competing Spotteds for breeding territory and food, depressing their populations even fruther

12/

Barred Owls are a forest species, and until Westward Expansion, there were not ample enough forests across the Great Plains to sustain barred owl populations. As settlement "tamed" the plains, trees and forests popped up in the 1800s allowing a stepping stone path for Barred Owls to travel west

11/

They are a bit unique in the world of invasives. Unlike European Starlings, brought here intentionally by man, Barred Owls have largely become invasive by their own volition, but with the assist of man.

10/

After the issue of habitat loss had been stemmed, a new challenge appeared for Spotted Owls - the species at the start of this thread.

While Barred Owls are a common sight across the eastern part of the continent, they are an invasive species here in the West.

9/

Eventually, the fervor died down and forests were protected, but the Spotted Owl populations were nearing critical levels. There was some population recovery after the habitat destruction, but in many ways the damage had been done.

8/

Environmentalists locked themselves gates, spiked trees, laid caltrops on logging roads.

Loggers and locals fought against the movement, some even poaching owls. A famous image of the era is the spoof of a Campbell's soup can touting "Cream of Spotted Owl Soup"

7/

By using the Northern Spotted Owl's listing on the Endangered Species List, they could use owl as a legal tool via the legal weight of the Endangered Species Act to conserve the old growth. This inflamed tensions around the owls, and the very act itself, and sparked animosity across the region

6/

To say the debate was heated would be an understatement. Loggers and small communities that relied on the logging industry saw the owls as a threat to their way of life.

While there is not law to protect an endangered ecosystem, conservationists found a neat trick to fight for the forests

5/

If you were around the PNW conservation circles (or simply read about that time) in the 80s and 90s, you may remember the Timber Wars, as conservationists used the plight of the Spotted Owl as a means to protect the last few remaining pockets of old-growth from the mill.

4/

Spotted Owls evolved with the massive, dense, old-growth forests of the PNW, ranging from Northern California up the coast towards British Columbia. As settlers expanded west, so did their blades, felling large swaths of Spotted Owl habitat, imperiling the species.

3/

Why do I wish I didn't see him? That's a complicated answer. To sum it up, through no fault of his own, he is helping drive the extinction of another owl.

Barred Owls did not historically call the PNW home, but a similar species did - The Northern Spotted Owl

2/

A barred owl stares off to the left of the camera with a mottled out of focus green and brown background behind

Portrait of a Bird I Wish I Didn't See

(This is going to be a long thread. Strap in.)

Seen here is a gorgeous male barred owl as he swooped down on the trail near me to grab a worm for a little snack. I was birding with my friend near Tacoma yesterday when I saw him, but I wish I didn't.

1/

THE ONLY THING THAT CAN KILL A BAD MCDONNELL JET WITH A GUN IS A GOOD MCDONNELL JET WITH A GUN

*slaps MD-12* this baby can fit so many future plane crash fatality victims

Thank you! I'm out rn but let me get back to you on the file size

If you own a rimowa, give me two hundred dollars