BigGameHoundsmen.com

The sixth ranked project was Lion Depredation in East Range, Tobins, Stillwaters, Clan Alpines and Fish Creek Mt. Ranges, proposed by Mike Stremler. The project proposes to kill 10 mountain lions at a cost of $1,800 each.

I got this off NDOW news.
I hunt all these mountin ranges. This will put a hurt on my hunting. Stremler is a guid in therse areas. I don't no what to think.

This is why it is so important for sportsmen to get involved with the Fish and Game, or the Dow . Alot of time these issues can be worked out to the Sportsmens benifit.
The fish and game and the dow do not just go out looking for alot of money to spend.
Most of the time the Fish and game will increase the number of tags and if that does not work then they will controll the problem their selfs. Looks like it has got to this point.
There must be a problem, and the sportmans is not resolving the problem so the fish and game or the dow have to get involved.
It is not fair to the sportsman and it is not fair to the game animals and it is not fair to the ranchers or producers. Someone has to balance it all out and to someone, no matter what decision is made, someone is not going to be happy and think it is unfair.
My suggestion is to get the houndsmen and hound clubs involved with every meeting and develope a good relationship with the fish and game. Gain their respect and you will see that you will be able to be in on alot of the decisions that are made.
Good luck

in all fairness, a lot of issues that require the WMA to spend money to reslove USUALLY come about because people won't allow sport hunters access. on public access land 99 times out of 100 an increase of tags or longer season usualy solves the problem.

Great. Just great. This is going to turn out just fantastic, I can tell (lots of sarcasm involved in that last statement). And considering the fact that nevada has the most lenient season on lions, already being year round with the option of two per year, per person. And the quotas have never come close to being filled. I'm pretty sure they haven't tried to make the season any better for us at all. The are just trying to make the mule deer guys happy by hiring someone to come in and clear out some prime deer contry of cats. I don't see this going in a very good direction for any of us...

NM did the same with our lion season. use to be year round season 2 cats per hunter in Deesrt BH sheep areas. Hunters didnt get the job done. houndsman killed matbe 5-10 lions in multiple years total. The sheep were getting heavy predation from the lions. 85% of the BH sheep mortalities was from lions. They hired trappers and been snaring the hell out of lions since. About 150 lions in the last 6-7 years out of Desert BH Sheep. Sheep populations have been growing ever since

We lost our seasons partly because we as hunters didnt get the job done. We were partly to blame.

I bet the situatuion in Nevada is simular to this.

Well I'm sure if everyone would make up their mind whether or not its okay to kill lions than I'm sure we would all be better off. I don't want to kill a cat honestly. But by the sounds of it I'm going to have to fill both tags every year... Lion stew anyone?

Has there been any info on this lately?

Havent' heard anything on this Mike. But if you go to the NDOW website and look at the Commission page, there is the agenda for the next meeting. Item #11 is for adjustments to items on the original Heritage Fund projects. It has the projects listed, but I have not had time to research them, and see what the adjustments are. There is also no support material for that item, which does not surprise me at all. I am sure the commission really does not want it to have any support material until right before the meeting, so as few people know about the changes as possible.

Later,

Marcial

Pops wrote:in all fairness, a lot of issues that require the WMA to spend money to reslove USUALLY come about because people won't allow sport hunters access. on public access land 99 times out of 100 an increase of tags or longer season usualy solves the problem.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!! In the paper just the other day was an artical about a 85 year old man and all the bear problems he was having. He shot one because it "sat on my prized blue berry bush". He moved to the mountains to "live close to nature but, I've had enough. This is the 4th bear I've shot this year" (all out of season mind you). He will NOT allow hunting of any kind on his property but, complains about how many bear their are and how the F&W guys don't seem concerned enough about his problems. Hunters can solve these issues but, because of a few bad apples we all suffer.

I know mike he is a dam nice guy he didnt do this to piss people off he has been loosing cattle to lions and he mostly hunts horse back in areas that are inaccessble to most hunters he cuts at least two different tracks a day on horse back he has cut up to five different tracks a day there are few hunters go those areas anyway and they just hunt the few roads that are there he mostly hunts his own property and his leased blm land I know some of you think its wrong but if you look at it from a ranchers point of view you might think differently its like the wolves around here they are taking over

So are those area's mainly private or public?

if it has an exclusive grazing lease it may as well be private.

If you guys know the area what so ever you would know that all those mountain ranges are accessible to the public even his private land is free to the public I doubt mike even gets ten lions a winter as much as he works anyway I dont here anyone complaining about all the lions that are taken outa the santa rosa mtn range by the outfitters and hunters and that is still one of the best places to lion hunt they are everywhere Im starting to wonder if this is just a jealousy thing

Nope, I'm not jealous because I don't know the man or the area. Just an interested observer. If there are as many cats up there as you say, I see no problem with it.

I have not really said too much on this issue, but here are some things that I think are noteworthy.

1. Stremler is a subguide for Gary Coleman.

2. Total lions killed in 18 last year (recorded kills) - 4; area 4, 5 lions

3. The economy is in the dumps

4. The deer population according to NDOW is at or very near capacity in area 4, and there is a fear of a large die off if a hard winter hits. Area 18 is mostly sheep country, which are doing quite well. There is very little deer country left in that area because of the PJ's.

5. If I remember the proposal correctly, it was for the protection of mule deer in the East's, Humboldt's, Tobins, Stillwaters, Fish Creeks, and Clan Alpines. MULE DEER. I remember no mention of cattle, or depredation of livestock whatsoever.

So now these are the questions I ask.

If it was really for cattle, why was it not brought to wildlife services, and why were other houndsmen that he is in contact with not contacted to help with the problem?

How much does he get paid per lion killed as a subguide?

How many hunters did Coleman book and how many were successful? How many with Stremler?

Is the economy so bad that hunters can't afford a lion hunt?

Are hunters willing to kill lions in the country? I have hunted in some of that, and its no better or worse than other areas of the state, IMO.

These are just some thoughts and questions that go through my head when I see something like this pop up. I don't know Stremler, and do not have anything bad to say of him, however the whole situation seems odd. And as a sportsman, I would rather see every lion killed get a tag put on it rather than a check from our sportsmans dollars to pay for it.

Later,

Marcial