RULE CHANGES FOR COUGAR HUNTERS - please provide comment

[KFhunter]

Please provide a comment on the upcoming rules changes for Cougar

https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/seasonsetting/2018-2020/index.php


They want to shorten the early season so it ends DEC 15 instead of Jan 1.   (It will start on Sept 1 same as before)

Late season will be from DEC 15 to Mar 31 and it'll be a month shorter, it used to end in April.

This will allow WDFW to close the season on a lot of GMU's that historically reach their quota's prior to the start of the late season.  For example GMU 105 with their retarded 2 cougar quota always reaches their quota before Jan 1, so it's always closed come late season...but we could always hunt until Jan1.  Now we'll have to quit hunting Dec 15, about the time the snow starts flying in more earnest.

This will knock out any targeted cougar hunting as incidental harvest will reach harvest goals.  Not only that, but when there is a harvest of a problem cat (killing goats whatever) it goes against the quota too.  We need to end these retarded quota's and have a long single season. 

I urge you all to comment on this and other issues.

[bearpaw]

  agree with everything you said x2, the quota in 105 is the most ridiculous in the state

[Ridgeratt]

 

It's interesting how the quota used to be 20 animals with hounds to chasing them on foot to BOTH of them. 

Did the WDFW come transplant them to other units? Perhaps they have sterilized all the breeding females or neutered the males.

[Rainier10]

After my cougar hunt in Idaho this year and learning a ton from Dale as well as seeing firsthand a ton of cat tracks, I can say without a doubt that the whole quota thing is dumb.  Numbers should be way higher.  There is no way with the quota numbers they are using that we are keeping the cougar count in check, it is for sure going through the roof after this manner years of boot hunting only.

[Southpole]

I left comments for the cougar seal, which I think is unreasonable, and I left a lengthy comment on the cougar season and quotas. Pretty much what you all are saying. I would like to see Sept. 1 - March 31 no quotas state wide with at least a week for sealing. Pretty simple. I don't think this state is going to run low on cougars anytime soon even with a liberal season.

[bearpaw]

After my cougar hunt in Idaho this year and learning a ton from Dale as well as seeing firsthand a ton of cat tracks, I can say without a doubt that the whole quota thing is dumb.  Numbers should be way higher.  There is no way with the quota numbers they are using that we are keeping the cougar count in check, it is for sure going through the roof after this manner years of boot hunting only.

  We were hunting in an area that is open from Nov 1 to Mar 31 (a large part of Idaho) to kill 2 cougar using hounds and there are still more cats than IDFG thinks is healthy for the other game herds. Even in the rest of Idaho the season runs from Dec 1 to Mar 31 with hounds, there are female quotas in more populated southern units to prevent over harvest of females, toms are not even included in the quotas.

Washington is so far out left of reality it's just amazing. It seems the goal is to have as many cougar in Washington as possible, the impacts of which WDFW could care less. My only hope for eastern WA is for the state of Liberty to come about. We'll get better management when eastern WA makes their own game management decisions!

[jasnt]

Done. The majority of cougar I see are from dec 1st to feb 1st. I think early season should end Jan 15th

[jasnt]

100% agree with bear paw

[RB]

Are the low quotas and shorter seasons in NE Washington due to "possible" encounters with the re-introduction and listing of the wolves as endangered species?

[bearpaw]

WDFW modeled their cougar management based on studies by Wielgus who has been proven to "doctor" his studies to suit his agenda. Even the University distanced themselves from Wielgus with a public statement. That is Washington cougar management in a nutshell.

[Southpole]

WDFW modeled their cougar management based on studies by Wielgus who has been proven to "doctor" his studies to suit his agenda. Even the University distanced themselves from Wielgus with a public statement. That is Washington cougar management in a nutshell.

I also have a theory of since less people live around those parts then they'll be less conflicts and more space for cats and bears, just a theory 

[RB]

Taken out of the Alberta study I found it ironic that Washington was used in the study, very interesting information they prove Cougar can sustain a healthy harvest!




Cougar populations appear to be capable of accommodating substantial harvest. A non-hunted cougar population in Utah recovered from a 27 per cent experimental reduction in resident adults in just nine months (Lindzey et al. 1992). Logan and Sweanor (2001) experimentally reduced a cougar population in New Mexico to less than half of the original number of adults and the population subsequently grew rapidly, recovering over a two year period. Similarly, Anderson and Lindzey (2005) found that after a 66 per cent population reduction due to heavy hunting in Wyoming (i.e., 43 per cent of the population removed annually for two years), the population recovered within three years when hunting pressure was reduced to 18 per cent annual removal. In one Washington study, an attempt to reduce a cougar population through liberal hunter harvest was unsuccessful, despite removing more than 24 per cent of cougars annually through hunting (Robinson et al. 2008). However, sustained annual harvest of greater than 40 per cent of adult cougars over four years for a heavily hunted population in Utah caused rapid population decline and reduced age structure over a large area, resulting in slow recovery when hunting pressure dropped below 30 per cent annual harvest (Stoner et al. 2006).

[hunter399]

Done and done ,left comment this morning,I might not even buy a cougar tag if they continue to shorten the season.

[JimmyHoffa]

Any opinions on the hound training proposal?  Looked like basically a pursuit season to keep hounds trained in case the department needs a houndsman.

[hunter399]

Any opinions on the hound training proposal?  Looked like basically a pursuit season to keep hounds trained in case the department needs a houndsman.

Did comment on it opposed it,I think hound hunting is illegal or legal ,don't like gray areas or permits for it.plus when I'm boot hunting the last thing I need is hounds training,most cougar killed in the quota system is by hounds already ,seems to me boot hunters just keep loseing opportunities
Because of gray areas like this one.For public safety cougar should only be hunted by hounds for residential area,schools,areas where there is a risk,somebody's goat killed should be a depredation permit for land owner to shoot it.