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WDFW's cougar plan based on good scienceDec. 15 Daily News editorialThe Hazel Dell neighborhood of Clark County, Kelso and Hollywood wouldn’t seem to have too much in common. But one surprising fact links them — they’re all cougar habitat.The knowledge that a carnivore that’s been known to kill humans is prowling nearby is unnerving. But we, like most Washingtonians, believe that the animals have a right to share habitat with us, even if that habitat sometimes includes back yards in addition the back country.This week, cougars were in the news in Hazel Dell, a residential neighborhood just north of Vancouver. A cougar and signs of its presence have been spotted in the three-mile-long Salmon Creek Greenway, a popular place for walking and bicycling. One end of the Greenway has a small lake — Klineline Pond — that’s jammed with swimmers in summer and popular with anglers at other times of year. A trapper and wildlife biologist interviewed by The Columbian said that a cougar could easily migrate into the area, even though it’s surrounded by homes and businesses. Earlier this year, a cougar was removed from a back yard a few blocks from I-205 in Vancouver.Cougars can survive in the midst of major cities, too. Last month, National Geographic published a stunning photo of a cougar sauntering through Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, the famous “HOLLYWOOD” sign in the distance.Closer to home, a cougar was spotted in Kelso’s Tam O’Shanter Park in 2011. In the past two years, 24 cougar encounters in Cowlitz County have been reported to WDFW, though some were more conjecture than a confirmed sighting.When a cougar is spotted in a city park, some people call for calling out the hounds, or at least more hunting. But the number of cougars taken by hunters has actually increased in recent years — and new research by WDFW suggests that killing one cougar might just make things worse.Over the past half-century, public attitudes about cougars have changed dramatically. Until 1960, the cats were classified as bounty animals, with the state paying people to kill them. Since then, they’ve been managed as a game species. In 1996, voters banned the use of dogs to hunt cougars, the most effective way to get them. The measure passed with a 67 percent yes vote statewide, with 56 percent of voters in Cowlitz County in favor.Sentiment in favor of cougars still appears to be high. In 2009, the WDFW surveyed the public statewide. 92 percent of those questioned said cougars have an inherant right to live in Washington; only 10 percent said cougars spotted in or near towns should be killed.Even with the ban on hound hunting, the number of cougars killed by hunters since 1996 has increased because the Department of Fish and Wildlife greatly expanded cougar seasons and made tags cheaper. And cougar hunting is still allowed with dogs if WDFW believes a cougar poses a risk to humans or livestock. Since 1996, the estimated cougar population in Washington has fallen from around 3,000 to 2,000.For the past 13 years, Washington State University biologists have studied cougar behavior with a goal of basing a management policy on science rather than politics. Researchers found that male cougars are highly territorial, so their populations are naturally self-controlling. If you remove an older, dominant male, often two or more younger cats move into the same territory. WDFW has adjusted its management of cougar hunting to create more harvest zones and preserve the “social stability” of cougars.We’re glad the agency is basing cougar management on better science. But we’ll still get a chill if we ever see a cougar, whether in the Cascades or in the city.
