Katie M. Dugger J. Mark Higley Damon B. Lesmeister Alan B. Franklin Keith A. Hamm Gary C. White Krista E. Dilione David C. Simon Robin R. Bown Peter C. Carlson Charles B. Yackulic James D. Nichols James E. Hines Raymond J. Davis David W. Lamphear Christopher McCafferty Trent L. McDonald Stan G. Sovern David Wiens 2021 <div class="executive-summary"><p id="p-4">Invasive species can cause extinctions of native species and widespread biodiversity loss. Invader removal is a common management response, but the use of long-term field experiments to characterize effectiveness of removals in benefitting impacted native species is rare. We used a large-scale removal experiment to investigate the demographic response of a threatened native species, the northern spotted owl, to removal of an invasive competitor species, the barred owl. Removal of barred owls had a strong, positive effect on survival of spotted owls, which arrested long-term population declines of spotted owls. The results demonstrate that the long-term persistence of spotted owls will depend heavily on reducing the negative impacts of barred owls while simultaneously addressing other threats, such as habitat loss.</p></div> application/pdf 10.1073/pnas.2102859118 en PNAS Invader removal triggers competitive release in a threatened avian predator article