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Cougar vote No. 3

Published: December 28, 2007

It's time to let Oregon voters reconsider their stance on hunters using dogs to track and tree cougars.

Two times a majority of voters opposed that practice.

But voters cast those ballots in 1994 and 1996, and Oregon's cougar situation has changed considerably in the ensuing 11 years.

Most significantly, Oregon's cougar population has increased. The state's Fish and Wildlife Department estimates there are 5,100 cougars in Oregon today — a 50-percent rise from the 1994 population of 3,400.

The ban on hound-hunting is not solely responsible for that trend, since cougar numbers were increasing before 1994.

But that trend has accelerated since then, and state biologists attribute this in large part to the near-elimination of hound-hunting (ODFW can authorize hunters to use hounds to track cougars that threaten livestock or people).

As the number of cougars has increased so too, predictably, has the number of cases in which a cougar attacked livestock or pets or roamed near a home.

In 1992, according to ODFW, hunters killed 22 cougars in Oregon due to a "damage complaint." That figure more than tripled, to 67, in 1995, and it has continued to rise, to 162 cougars killed in 2006, and 183 in 2007 as of Dec. 6.

Granted, people have contributed to some of those problems by building homes in prime cougar habitat.

Earlier this month, though, ODFW biologists killed a cougar that had attacked a couple's dog on the front porch of their home near Pine Creek. That home was built in 1967.

Reversing the ban on hounds could prevent such situations by re-instilling in cougars their instinctive fear of humans.

We'd wager that even voters who dislike hunting would rather cougars flee from packs of hounds and possibly live, than attack dogs on front porches and almost certainly die as a result.

so are they trying to get it back on the ballot agian. i havnt heard anything about it.

bluedogs wrote:so are they trying to get it back on the ballot agian. i havnt heard anything about it.

I don't think so... I think it is just someone smart opinion....

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 30/-1/NEWS

Buckley calls for further study of state cougar plan
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By Mark Freeman
Mail Tribune
January 04, 2008
Animal activists are planning a new legislative assault on changes to cougar management in Oregon, saying the killing of more cougars in populated areas to curb damage complaints flies against fresh science and public will.

Cougar activists beginning today plan to ratchet up their case against the state's fledgling cougar management plan, which includes a cougar-killing study now under way in the Rogue Valley by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

For ammunition, the activists are pointing to a recent study in Washington that suggests cougar populations are not expanding as Oregon's plan concludes, and that backing off hunting — not increasing it — is the best remedy for curbing cougar-human conflicts.

The groups have bent the ear of Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, who said he's calling for a new round of scientific reviews of the plan that has become a lightning rod of dissent from cougar activists since it was adopted in 2006.

"I think it was put in place with the best of intentions, but I don't think it's good for the state," Buckley said Thursday. "I think it bears a little more scrutiny. All we're asking for is a scientific review to see if we're doing the right thing."

Buckley said he plans to offer a bill calling for a new round of peer review on the plan when the Legislature convenes in 2009. He said he also plans to lobby during February meetings in Salem to find some short-term adjustments to how the ODFW implements the plan.

"In the interim, all we can do is ask the department to go slow," Buckley said.

Ron Anglin, the ODFW's Wildlife Division administrator, said his agency went through two rounds of scientific review on pieces of the plan and he has no plans to do a third.

"We're comfortable in where we are with this plan and the science behind it," Anglin said.

A computer model built within the plan estimates more than 5,000 cougars are in Oregon, and the plan outlines how the animals will be managed. Though much of the plan has not been challenged, most public concern has focused on whether killing more cougars will help quell complaints about human safety and losses to livestock.

A key element of the plan is the killing of cougars in specific "target areas" to determine if reducing cougar numbers also will reduce human-safety complaints as well as livestock damage.

A nearly 1,000-square mile area of the Rogue Valley area is one of three target areas in the study, which began last February. Seven cougars have been killed in the Rogue Valley portion of the study.

"We're about as slowed-down as we can be with the Cougar Management Plan," Anglin said. "We have only three target areas."

Cougar activists are pointing to a study published in The Journal of Wildlife Management in 2006 that supports the opposite conclusion.

Researchers in northeast Washington conclude that cougar populations in the Pacific Northwest are actually declining due in part to increased human intrusion on cougar habitat and a very young age structure of the cougar population caused by heavy hunting.

That study recommends reduced hunting levels, particularly among adult females, throughout the Pacific Northwest.

"This completely blows the cougar plan out of the water," said Spencer Lennard, executive director of Williams-based Big Wildlife and a cougar-plan opponent. "We need to listen to the good science, not the politics.

"The consequence is the irretrievable loss of a species," Lennard said.

Anglin said ODFW biologists were aware of the Washington study data while crafting Oregon's plan and that there isn't universal agreement with its conclusions.

"It's not unusual that you have research projects that say different things," Anglin said.

Lennard praised Buckley's willingness to challenge the ODFW over its cougar plan.

"He's our champion," Lennard said.

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail mfreeman@mailtribune.com.