Cougar management plan draws skepticism

Published 4:00 am Thursday, January 5, 2006

SALEM – Spurred by public angst and livestock industry losses from cougars in Oregon’s increasingly settled backcountry, the state is proposing a plan that would open the door to killing off thousands of the predators.

The new management strategy, which could replace a version adopted in 1993, will go before the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission today, and could be adopted in early February.

Nobody knows for sure how many mountain lions reside in Oregon, but the Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that the population has topped 5,000 – an increase of 2,000 since voters banned the recreational hunting of the blond-haired big cats with hounds in 1994.

Also since then, hordes of people have moved into the rugged and scenic landscapes of Central, Southern and Northeast Oregon – places that have traditionally been home to cougars.

It all adds up to more sightings, and jangled nerves for those who live where cougars tread.

The cougar incident that caused the biggest stir in Central Oregon in the past year involved one that got away.

In April 2005, a mountain lion prowled Bend’s upscale Awbrey Butte, killing a deer and a pet dog that was tethered to a tree. Despite attempts to track the cat, it was never found.

The proposed state management plan proposes reducing the cougar-related conflicts back to the level of 1994, when the cat population numbered roughly 3,000.

Those incidents include menacing pets and livestock, plus cougar predation of other species the state is supposed to manage, such as elk and bighorn sheep.

David Williams, Oregon Wildlife Services director for the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Portland, said his office is now cataloging between 350 and 400 cougar-related incidents a year from 22 of the state’s 36 counties – and that only accounts for incidents that are reported.

In the 2004 federal fiscal year, Oregon saw 365 documented cougar kills of horses, cattle and sheep in the state, along with 32 incidents in which a cat killed one or more pets.

There were about one-third as many incidents in 1994, he said.

The new management proposal would set a minimum statewide cougar population of at least 3,000 cats, but would not initially require any killing.

However, if cougar-related problems exceed the 1993 levels in any of six management zones, the state could embark on aggressive population-reduction efforts in the specific region, said Ron Anglin, the wildlife division director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

That way, the state could prevent problems before they occur, rather than waiting for the inevitable trouble when too many cougars populate an area.

He said the plan could open the door to aggressive population control at the onset, because more cougars means more incidents.

The plan does not allow a return of recreational hunting of cougars with dogs, which was outlawed by voters, he said.

Mountain lions are fiercely territorial, so if there are more of them, it means they will encroach into developed or agricultural areas.

The proposal is music to the ears of the livestock industry, which has weathered years of losses to the appetites of predators, said Richard Kosesan, executive director of the Oregon Sheep Growers Association.

”There were more than $660,000 in losses to sheep producers last year, and that’s just what was reported,” he said. ”To suggest predation is not a major problem is mistaken.”

He said many sheep growers would like to see the cougar population even lower than the 1994 levels.

But on the flip side, the cougar plan is drawing a sharp reaction from pro-wildlife groups who say cougar killing is the wrong answer, and that humans and the predators can coexist in rural Oregon.

On Wednesday, the Sacramento-based Mountain Lion Foundation launched a public education campaign to encourage non-lethal ways to control Oregon’s growing cougar population.

”If there are no cougars, there are no conflicts, but I don’t think Oregonians want to see that,” said Michelle Cullens, the nonprofit group’s director of conservation programs.

”It’s a value judgment,” she said. ”Do we want managed populations of game animals or populations coexisting in a truly wild state?”

The organization is helping build a cougar-proof livestock pen at a goat farm near Salem this weekend. It also suggests the use of more dogs and llamas to keep predators at bay.

Cullens said if people kill cougars, other cougars or other predators such as coyotes will simply occupy the territory.

”Killing cougars doesn’t solve the problem,” she said.

But Kosesan and Anglin, the wildlife division director, said it would be impractical and expensive to expect the state’s large-scale livestock operations to erect and maintain covered pens for all their animals in all their pastures and rangeland.

”What they’re talking about probably works, but may not be practical all the time,” Anglin said.

Hungry cougars have gone into barns to kill animals and even onto back porches to eat pets, he said.

The wildlife commission will get a briefing today and then hear testimony on the 135-page plan. The state has already received more than 1,400 written comments, and will accept testimony until a final decision is made, Anglin said.

The soonest that will occur is in February, but there is no deadline and commissioners can take longer to endorse a plan or make changes, he said.

He said the state has an obligation to maintain not only cougars but other species – plus protect humans and livestock.

”This will allow us in targeted areas to proactively go in and kill cougars where there are going to be problems, instead of waiting for those to happen,” he said.