Night Owls

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For over ten years, biologist Mark Higley has been stalking the forests of the Hoopa Valley Reservation with a shotgun. His mission? To save the endangered northern spotted owl. How? By shooting the more aggressive barred owl, which has spread from eastern forests into the Pacific Northwest. In 2024, the federal government made a plan to scale these efforts by killing hundreds of thousands of barred owls across multiple states. Today, despite lawsuits and opposition, that plan is just beginning to ramp up. But can it really save the northern spotted owl? And is the barred owl really “invasive”… or just expanding its range? In this episode, Nate Hegyi dons a headlamp and heads into the…