Over the past century or so, barred owls have swooped across North America from east to west. Their story is complicated. Are they native or not? And what can their presence in the Pacific Northwest reveal about what it means to belong to a place at this particular moment in history? …Barred owls seem to be replacing and displacing northern spotted owls. Northern spotted owls are specialists, committed to old-growth forest. They are specific in their needs. … Each of the owl experts I speak with gives a long exhale when I ask if killing almost half a million barred owls is a good idea. The world is a richer place with northern spotted owls, they say. There is no protecting northern spotted owls without old-growth forest protection, they say. Killing barred owls to save northern spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest is a forever war, they say.