OREGON WILDLIFE

Cougars In The Cross Hairs

By Dan Richardson, 1-24-06

Funny thing, those unintended consequences. A decade ago, back when the Clinton presidency was still young and vigorous, Oregonians collectively sighed and said, "Oh, that's so mean!" and voted to ban sport hunters from using dogs to bag cougars.

No dogs? More cougars!

In the years since the 1994 vote, Oregon's cougars have enjoyed a decade of love, breeding themselves from about 3,000 to an estimated 5,100. Ah, good times.

This population rise came despite the efforts of the state to keep a lid on things by slashing cougar hunting tags from $51 to $11.50, and despite the upsurge in sport hunters' success. Hunters bagged 39 cats in 1994; 98 in 1996; and more than 100 cougars per year every year since, without dogs.

The cougars' population growth is such that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is proposing to cull the cougars, and humans' complaints against them, which have grown louder with the population spike. Currently, authorities target individual cats only after one attacks livestock or pets or strays close to human habitations. A new plan,released this month, calls for ODFW agents to actively reduce cougar populations in problem areas. Birth control by bullets, one might say.

According to the plan's background details, the cougar population in Oregon's North Cascades/Coast area (including around Mount Hood, Hood River County and western Wasco County) has grown from an estimated 2.2 cougars per 100 square miles in 1994, to 3.1 in 2003 (the latest year with complete data). We have half again as many cougars as we used to, in other words.

That translates into an estimated 318 cougars in the Columbia Basin east of The Dalles, and 615 in the North Cascades and Coast area.

Keith Kohl, district wildlife biologist for ODFW in The Dalles, tells New West Columbia Gorge that according to anecdotal evidence and reports, he believes cougars in the greater Gorge are feeling crowded as the neighborhood fills up, so to speak.

"They're expanding out into the marginal and poor habitat," he said. "So we're seeing more animals out in the wheat land and the canyon land, in the Deschutes Canyon and those sorts of places. ... The optimal habitat is filled, so they're having to expand out."

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is scheduled to consider and vote on the updated cougar plan at its Feb.9-10 hearings, in Salem.

Not everybody is happy with the idea of thinning the herd. Some enviros pooh-pooh the exaggerated angst and publicity given to cougar sightings.

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