Flat Owl Decoy?

Last weekend, when birding at Floyd Bennett Field, I made a brief stop at the Ryan Visitors Center. While speaking with the ranger stationed at the front desk I noticed the following item sitting on the counter top:


I asked the ranger about it and he replied that someone had illegally installed it on a wooden post in the middle of the grassland. NPS employees noticed it and pulled it out. I'm still trying to figure out what the perpetrators had hoped to accomplish. Attract Snowy Owls? Repel Snowy Owls? Prank paparazzi? Could this be the "Flat Stanley" for birders?