I really enjoyed Dr. Kalbach’s recent article discussing barred owls, which happen to be my favorite bird.

I am not a bird expert, but I do have a forestry degree and nearly 60 years making my living in the forests, and have always observed birds and other wildlife carefully. We live on our timberland of several hundred acres, and I can actually hear the barred owl call at night from my bedroom window. One stays in our RV barn at night and keeps the mice out. Another flies ahead of my tractor in the woods and watches me. In other words, they do very well around humans.

The spotted owl does not do well around humans and in our managed forests such as mine. So Mother Nature provides another very similar species to fill the void and it is working very well. Our managed forests are very healthy ecosystems, but support a different group of birds than an old growth ecosystem. So all is well, Nature has provided a great solution.

A narrowly focused federal program to slaughter the more successful species is flat wrong, and I think it will be opposed and rejected by the public over the years. We actually have some vast reserves of original forests throughout the Northwest in the National Parks and National Forest. The spotted owl should do his thing there, and I will keep my barred owls.

GREG PATTILLO

Raymond