US officials make extraordinary change to hunting laws: ‘Long overdue’
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Monthly Archives: October 2025
We’ve uncovered deception and doublespeak in owl kill plan
| Our Research and Investigation Uncover Collusion by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Timber Industry to Kill OwlsBarred owls and spotted owls are in the crosshairs By Wayne Pacelle We’ve learned in recent days that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s billion-dollar “Barred Owl Management Strategy” (BOMS) is not what it seems. It’s a scheme. A con job. A bait-and-switch. Sold to the public as a rescue mission for the threatened northern spotted owl, the plan does nothing of that kind. Instead, it’s a deceptive plan with designs not only to produce a body count of 450,000-plus barred owls, but also to kill northern spotted owls in untold numbers. The BOMS is double trouble for owls. It’s worse than a neutron bomb — because the birds die and not even the trees are left standing. It’s crony capitalism at work, with government and industry conspiring to bilk taxpayers $1.35 billion, undermine animal welfare and conservation values, and bring massive profits to companies already raking in the dough. Unbeknownst to the public, the plan all along was for the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to craft a plan that uses the pretext of “controlling” barred owl populations as a way of “helping” spotted owls. But it turned out to be a thin cover plot for the timber industry to nearly double the annual cut of timber in the verdant forests of the Pacific Northwest over the next eight years, laying waste to both species of owls in the process. Undercutting Decades of Protection for Two Species of Owls The Endangered Species Act (ESA) protects species it classifies as “threatened” or “endangered” and timber companies and other private actors aren’t generally allowed to take their lives by cutting down the trees that are their homes. Nor are they allowed to kill barred owls or any other North American owls protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). And the agency can also issue an “incidental take” permit to destroy the habitat of the owls — “incidentally” harassing or even killing the spotted owls. But in that circumstance, the agency requires timber companies to offset the harm to the spotted owls by taking some corresponding action to help them. It’s a sort of pay-to-slay scheme. The prohibition on the killing of these protected species has always presented a problem for the timber industry, putting them in a position of having to come pleading to the FWS to issue permits to kill the species under certain circumstances and come up with creative ways to try to mitigate the harm to the species. But until now, it’s been the job of the FWS to safeguard animal populations, not facilitate habitat destruction or the killing of protected species. All of that is about to change with the BOMS scheme that FWS, the timber industry, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have colluded to engineer. The government and business interests have spent years working together to smear the reputation of barred owls — falsely labeling the North American owls as “invasive” and exaggerating their level of competition with spotted owls. In fact, as early as 2016, a BLM Resource Management Plan stated that it would not authorize timber sales that would cause the incidental take of northern spotted owl until a barred owl management program had begun. BLM sowed the seeds for this scheme to kill barred owls and spotted owls nearly a decade ago. But any person involved in spotted owl conservation understood that it was decades of timber cutting that triggered a long-term decline in their populations, not the behavior of look-alike cousins. In fact, no bird species has ever driven a different bird species into the extinction abyss. Humans have always been the agents of their demise. The whole blame-game focused on barred owls was a public-private bait-and-switch. In California, Oregon, and Washington, the FWS and the BLM engineered a legal process to allow the timber companies to “incidentally take” spotted owls as long as the companies participated in killing barred owls. In other words, the FWS will issue permits to kill spotted owls and will then give the timber companies license to kill barred owls. The forests are cleansed of both species with taxpayers paying for the lion’s share of it. Turning the ESA into a Sword to Hurt Wildlife It’s an extraordinary perversion of the Endangered Species Act, turning a federal law designed as a shield for wildlife into a sword. We’ve said all along that the BOMS was a boondoggle — a waste of a billion dollars on an inhumane plan, a deflection away from the timber industry’s own destructive conduct, and an unworkable plan. Shooting barred owls would do little good, since other barred owls would fill in the void in short order, resetting the existing relationships between the two owl species. But it’s worse than we originally imagined — with the spotted owls also being the targets of this plan. The scheme smacked of industry capture of government. The FWS was charged to protect barred owls under the terms of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and to protect northern spotted owls under the MBTA and the Endangered Species Act. Instead, the agency has put targets on the backs of the barred owls and it’s putting “do cut” markings on trees slated for felling. Congress Can Unwind BOMS But we can turn around this mess and morass if Congress passes the resolutions to nullify BOMS. The resolutions — S.J. Res. 69, led by Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., and H.J. Res. 111, promoted by Reps. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, Josh Harder, D-Calif., Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Adam Gray, D-Calif. — will maintain existing protections for barred owls and spotted owls. And they won’t burn your taxpayer dollars in the process. Last week, Sen. Kennedy turned in 30 signatures from his colleagues, meeting the threshold required to bring his resolution directly to the floor for a simple majority vote of all 100 senators. That vote can happen any day now. If it goes our way, the action will allow the FWS to get back to conservation basics: protecting habitats, engaging in sound forestry practices, and sensible management of forests to preserve owls who rule the night. Nixing BOMS will prevent shooting of barred owls in 14 national parks and it will prevent a timber-industry assault on threatened spotted owls and their habitats, too. We’ve built a coalition of 450 groups to fight for the owls. But we need you — and tens of thousands of caring people like you — to raise their collective voices right now against hurting the barred owls and the spotted owls. | |||
There’s not a moment to waste. It’s no time to stand on the sidelines. Please help now. With gratitude, President Animal Wellness Action |
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Turkey prices soar ahead of Thanksgiving as US flock now smallest in 40 years
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Published Oct. 20, 2025, 2:47 p.m. ET7 Comments
America might be going cold turkey on turkey.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the nation’s turkey flock has decreased to the smallest size in 40 years — and a fall rebound in avian flu cases is adding to the damage.
Due to tighter production and losses from disease, wholesale turkey prices are about 40% higher than they were last year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
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According to USDA data cited by the bureau, wholesale prices for turkey are expected to increase to $1.32 per pound — even with production falling to a 40-year low.
There’s expected to be 4.8 billion pounds of production, which is 5% below 2024.
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Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) hit the turkey industry hard, impacting about 18.7 million turkeys and accounting for 10% of all birds affected by the virus since 2022.
This number reported by the Farm Bureau on Oct. 1 includes 2.2 million turkeys affected so far in 2025, mainly impacting 12 states.
In 2025, 195 million turkeys were raised, which is 3% less year over year and 36% below the peak in 1996.
According to USDA data, nearly 514,000 turkeys have been affected by fresh bird flu outbreaks this month alone — mostly in Minnesota.
However, experts haven’t lost hope for holiday dinners. The National Turkey Federation told Axios that there will be enough for Thanksgiving, but supply could potentially tighten for fresh or specific-size birds if cases of avian flu increase in the coming weeks.
“U.S. turkey growers and processors have been working around the clock, managing through challenges like avian influenza and avian metapneumovirus,” said Leslee Oden, the Federation’s president and CEO.
“We feel confident in the frozen turkey supply, and while there’s been an uptick in bird flu cases, we do not see those impacting overall supply right now,” Oden told Axios.
Oden noted that if shoppers want a specific size of type of turkey, they should plan ahead just to be safe.
A spokesperson for Butterball confirmed to Axios that there will be plenty of available options from their brand regardless of the “ever-evolving, industrywide challenge.”
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Last year, a survey by Finance Buzz crowned Hawaii as the home of the most expensive turkeys in the United States, costing $52.85 for a 15-pound specimen. Alaska came in second at $44.85 per turkey, on average. New York came in sixth place, with turkeys costing $35.85.
The average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 in 2024 was $58.08, or about $5.80 per person, according to last year’s American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Thanksgiving dinner survey.
In 2022, a record of $64.06 was set, the highest since the bureau began its yearly assessment in 1986.
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The DNR has introduced new specials and adjustments to boost participation
10-21-2025 at 07:53:44 PM EDTMichigan deer hunting numbers fall, but recent uptick observed
For those who are active hunters, it might come as a shock that less people are taking part in the hobby compared to 20 years ago – but that number is slowly growing.
According to the 2024 Michigan Deer Harvest Survey Report, about 60,000 fewer people purchased a deer hunting license in 2024 compared to 2014.
While that may seem like a lot, the number only went down by 9% to 604,088.
While the number is lower, data also shows it is going up compared to 2022 and 2023.
Michigan DNR Survey Coordinator tells us there are two things behind this increase – baby boomers and the youth.
He says that as baby boomer age into retirement, they are hunting more, and, due to regulation changes, younger generations can now receive a deer hunting license.
Despite this, they are still not seeing enough of the younger generation to make up for the older generation leaving the pastime behind.
Frawley tells us “So hunting isn’t as attractive as it was to the baby boomers. You got to remember, the baby boomers grew up in the 70s. A greater percentage of the population lived in rural areas at that time. So they were they probably had a closer connection with the land because they were either, children of landowners, the farmers, or they were one generation removed. So now as the generations get removed, there’s less connection with the land, and therefore they have less access to the land to hunt. ”
But, there are some ways to help bring the number back up.
The DNR has issued new specials during the season, as well as adjustments to encourage more people to hunt.
But, Frawley says it it takes a hunter to become a hunting, adding “Most hunters come from families of hunters. So we do our best to encourage participation by youth.”
NUMEROUS ILLINOIS SITES OPEN FOR 2025 YOUTH WATERFOWL HUNTS
By Mark WellsOct 21, 2025 | 5:54 AM
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has announced that dozens of state parks, fish and wildlife areas, and public lands will be open for youth waterfowl hunting during the 2025 youth waterfowl hunt season. Youth waterfowl hunters aged 17 or younger may hunt ducks, geese, coots, and mergansers if accompanied by an adult who may not hunt these species during the youth hunt.
Youth hunters must hold a valid hunting license, youth hunting license, or apprentice hunting license. Those aged 16 and older must also have a federal duck stamp, but no Illinois duck stamp is required.
Licensed youth may be supervised by an adult 18 or older. Youth and apprentice license holders must be supervised by an adult at least 21 years old.
Bag Limits: Same as regular seasons.
All hunters, including youth, must be registered with the Harvest Information Program (HIP).
Special Youth-Only Hunt Dates and Locations: (Ages 10-17):
Spring Lake SFWA (Spring Lake Bottoms Unit): Nov. 9th
Southern Illinois Youth Waterfowl Hunt (Union County & Horseshoe Lake SFWA): Dec. 28th
Additional youth hunts are open to hunters aged 17 and younger.
South Central Zone: (Nov. 8-9, 2025)
Campbell Pond
Carlyle Lake SFWA
Kaskaskia SFWA
Kinkaid Lake SFWA
Mississippi River
Oakwood Bottoms
Most sites follow regular season rules, but hunters are urged to review site-specific regulations for changes. The 2025–2026 Digest of Illinois Hunting and Trapping Regulations provides comprehensive information.
Exposing the Big Game 