more OR lion predation

[Emily]

http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/20 ... 415044.txt

GRANTS PASS (AP) — Mack Williams has run sheep on his 5 acres for 35 years to keep the grass down and hasn’t lost one to predators for 34.

But in one six-week period recently he lost six. Matted wool lies in several piles, and half a sheep carcass is tied to a fence where a paid hunter hoped to lure back the cougar suspected of doing the deed.

“It’s frustrating to have livestock,” said Williams. “I used to have cats to eat the mice. They disappeared last year too. I’ll probably lose all my sheep.”

Williams lives a half mile from the Redwood Highway, subdivisions and a shopping center.

The problem is the human push into the wild or vice versa.

Thirteen years ago Oregon banned hunting for cougars with hounds.

“We had a pretty good system until Measure 18 went into effect,” said Mark Vargas, district wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Central Point. “Hunters could use dogs, and could go into those areas with problems.

“Humans have sprawled more, but cougar populations have also increased.”

Williams now must keep a close watch on his sheep.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to allow volunteer hound hunters to kill problem cougars, where before they had to be government employees.

Opponents say it’s another assault on the carnivores at the top of the food chain.

“All this is, is a clarification of the statute,” Vargas said. “This doesn’t allow anybody to go hunting with hounds. It’s not even close to that.”

Oregon also implemented a cougar-killing plan a year ago to see if that would reduce the conflicts.

Jackson County is a target area, with a goal of 24 kills a year. Only six were killed last year. After three years, ODFW will assess the results.

“We’d like to kill 24 this year,” said Vargas.

Cougar complaints have risen over the years, averaging more than 1,300 a year in Jackson and Josephine counties. Until the late 1950s there was a bounty on cougars, and until 1991, Josephine County hired its own hunters.

The 47 cougars brought in dead to the ODFW office in 2007 is a record and included 37 killed by hunters. It did not include the six killed for the study.

State Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, said he plans to introduce a bill to examine the science of ODFW’s cougar plan.

Buckley and others contend cougar populations are declining, citing a 2006 study in the Journal of Wildlife Management, which cites human intrusion and a young age structure caused by heavy hunting. The study recommended reduced hunting levels.

“I urge my colleagues to join me in developing a plan that relies on proven nonlethal measures to prevent conflicts with these magnificent animals,” Buckley said.

Identifying a predator isn’t always easy, cougar advocates say, and contend that overhyped complaint numbers have fueled management policies.

Williams hired hunter Perry Allen of Medford to kill the suspected cougar, but after a three-night stakeout near the strung carcass he saw only two coyotes.

Hall said he saw no sign of a cougar but that paw prints were visible when it snowed.

Plus, there were signs the carcasses were dragged over a fence.

Coyotes usually weigh less than 40 pounds and can’t drag a 100-pound sheep very far.

The ODFW said it doesn’t classify cougar complaints as “verified” unless its own employees go to the scene. But Vargas said they lack manpower to check many of them.

“A lot of people mistake coyote kills for cougar kills,” Allen said. “Coyotes kill more sheep than cougars.”

But cougars also kill a lot of stock, said Allen, who has shot about 10 problem cougars in the past six years.

Places like Williams’ property are near homes. Hunters must use shotguns, and hounds can’t be used unless every other property owner is contacted, Vargas said.

Cougar advocates say people should protect their own livestock.

Don Tipping said he brings his sheep in at night.

“We sell wool, lamb and sheepskins so keeping our flock safe is important to our family farm,” Tipping said. “We’ve always assumed it was our responsibility to protect our animals.”

“We run a farm and raise children in cougar territory,” said Tom Powell, a farmer in the upper Applegate Valley. “We mitigate the threat of cougars to poultry and humans by using fencing and common sense.”