Photo: Spotted owl habitat logged in 2007 at S & M Creek, located near Pemberton BC 

The province has undertaken a cull and removal program of barred owls in certain parts of the province in an effort to help a rarer, more vulnerable species of owl, but some Nanaimo wildlife enthusiasts and workers have their doubts.

The B.C. government has authorized the killing barred owls in certain areas of the province because the species is a threat to the smaller and much rarer northern spotted owl, which is on the verge of extinction. Some reports have wild northern spotted owl numbers down to as low as 10 in south-western B.C.

Barred owls frequently encroach on the habitat of the smaller owl and are very common. While the spotted owl has been listed on the endangered species list since the '80s, the barred owl has thrived and generally out-competed its relative.

"The problem is the barred owl is very adaptable and the spotted owl isn't," said Robin Campbell of the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association, an organization that cares for injured wildlife and educates the pubic.

Vancouver Island is not within the natural range of the spotted owl, another one of the reasons it has rarely been seen by B.C. residents. Wilderness Committee policy director Gwen Barlee said the owls require lower-altitude, old-growth forest in the Lower Mainland. She said about 70 per cent of the owls' habitat has disappeared.

Barlee noted much of the Island's wilderness has seen clear-cutting activity, and added that biologists would be reluctant to introduce the bird of prey to a new area such as the Island.

Ryan Cathers, a local bird watcher and biology undergraduate at Vancouver Island University, said the plight of the northern spotted owl has been years in the making, thanks to clear-cut logging of old-growth forest.

"It's hard to say if this would be an issue if habitat were there for the spotted owls," he said.

"But with the habitat gone, it's an issue."

According to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, the goal is to preserve habitat for 125 pairs of spotted owls. The province has captured and relocated 73 barred owls, and 39 have been culled.

The Ministry says preliminary results suggest up to 13 new spotted owls were discovered at 9 of the 17 sites that barred owls were removed from.