Cougar trapping in Utah, maybe

[Humptulips]

The bill has passed and it is before the Governor for signature. Only thing that can stop it is his veto.
Year round hunting and trapping of cougar.
https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/hbillenr/HB0469.pdf

[bearpaw]

A few big changes in there, only a license is required, you can hunt or trap cougar with no cougar tag required, year around season, previously permit only areas are also open with year around season.

[boneaddict]

Wow!

[Houndhunter]

It's wierd they do this but stop the lion hunters in San Juan, book cliffs, and la sal in the spring unless you drew a spring bear tag. I hunt the Utah Colorado border a bunch but at the end of this month my Utah pursuit tag is no good. Only way I can hunt my hounds close to home after March is guiding a client with a bear tag in his pocket.

[bearpaw]

It's wierd they do this but stop the lion hunters in San Juan, book cliffs, and la sal in the spring unless you drew a spring bear tag. I hunt the Utah Colorado border a bunch but at the end of this month my Utah pursuit tag is no good. Only way I can hunt my hounds close to home after March is guiding a client with a bear tag in his pocket.

Are you sure it's still that way if the governor signs this bill?

[elkboy]

Appears to be some controversy over the measure:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/utah-bill-unlimited-mountain-lion-hunting/

[Houndhunter]

It's wierd they do this but stop the lion hunters in San Juan, book cliffs, and la sal in the spring unless you drew a spring bear tag. I hunt the Utah Colorado border a bunch but at the end of this month my Utah pursuit tag is no good. Only way I can hunt my hounds close to home after March is guiding a client with a bear tag in his pocket.

Are you sure it's still that way if the governor signs this bill?

What I've heard from other houndsman it won't for those units, but to be honest I'm not 100% on that as I personally have not looked into the bill yet.

[bearpaw]

Appears to be some controversy over the measure:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/utah-bill-unlimited-mountain-lion-hunting/

Lots of controversy, ranchers want it, lots of deer and elk hunters want it, hound hunters are mostly adamantly opposed, anti-hunters opposed, DWR probably doesn't like it, will be interesting to see if the governor signs it!

[Houndhunter]

Appears to be some controversy over the measure:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/utah-bill-unlimited-mountain-lion-hunting/

Lots of controversy, ranchers want it, lots of deer and elk hunters want it, hound hunters are mostly adamantly opposed, anti-hunters opposed, DWR probably doesn't like it, will be interesting to see if the governor signs it!

I'd like to see a year round pursuit season but limit the harvest season  .

[hunter399]

In Washington.
I'd buy my trappers licences today if they allowed it.
I have my certificate or whatever.
I'd buy today if cougar was on the table.

[elkboy]

Appears to be some controversy over the measure:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/utah-bill-unlimited-mountain-lion-hunting/

Lots of controversy, ranchers want it, lots of deer and elk hunters want it, hound hunters are mostly adamantly opposed, anti-hunters opposed, DWR probably doesn't like it, will be interesting to see if the governor signs it!

Thanks for the insight, Bearpaw.  What's your take?  Doesn't your company guide for deer, elk, and cougar down there?

I have no dog in the fight; I guess my reaction is that I have the same issue with this as with Prop 117 in CA back in the 90s, which did the opposite (make cougar a "specially protected species").  It's wildlife management via legislation, instead of letting the state wildlife agency do its job.  They didn't even consult UDWR, from what the article was saying.

[bearpaw]

Appears to be some controversy over the measure:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/utah-bill-unlimited-mountain-lion-hunting/

Lots of controversy, ranchers want it, lots of deer and elk hunters want it, hound hunters are mostly adamantly opposed, anti-hunters opposed, DWR probably doesn't like it, will be interesting to see if the governor signs it!

Thanks for the insight, Bearpaw.  What's your take?  Doesn't your company guide for deer, elk, and cougar down there?

I have no dog in the fight; I guess my reaction is that I have the same issue with this as with Prop 117 in CA back in the 90s, which did the opposite (make cougar a "specially protected species").  It's wildlife management via legislation, instead of letting the state wildlife agency do its job.  They didn't even consult UDWR, from what the article was saying.

Currently we are only doing lion hunts in Idaho. The hound hunters I know in Utah are opposed, but there could be some I don't know in favor, but I think that's unlikely.

I think it's possible some in DWR knew this was coming but didn't want to publicly support, not saying that's the case but it's certainly possible. Ranchers and deer/elk hunters both have strong lobbies in Utah, they both benefit if lion harvest increases, maybe that's all there is to the story?

If the governor signs the legislation into law I will suspect DWR didn't offer too much opposition.

My personal viewpoint, I like to see balanced management over the long term.


IMO, politics and game management is very different in every state, in some states legislation is used far more often than in other states. The result of legislative wildlife management varies greatly in each state too, but so does the wildlife agency management decisions.

There's very different results depending on who's in power, no matter if its the legislature or the state wildlife agency, just as we can see in Washington, wildlife management by the agency may not even follow science and may be all about politics too!

[KFhunter]

We need this in WA at least until we see a rebound in herds, then reaccess

[Special T]

We need this in WA at least until we see a rebound in herds, then reaccess

First off it could be done on the west side with cage traps. We never meet the insainly low harvest quoatas currently, and I could do a bunch of neighbors  a favor by trapping them around homes where they should not be anyway. The quickest way to solve this problem is go around the state politics by raising funds to reimburse/pay tribal members to focus on cats. They could do it with hounds or traps.

[idaho guy]

We need this in WA at least until we see a rebound in herds, then reaccess

First off it could be done on the west side with cage traps. We never meet the insainly low harvest quoatas currently, and I could do a bunch of neighbors  a favor by trapping them around homes where they should not be anyway. The quickest way to solve this problem is go around the state politics by raising funds to reimburse/pay tribal members to focus on cats. They could do it with hounds or traps.

   

In Washington, It seems like forming a group (something like the foundation for wildlife management )that would pay (reimbursement) the tribes to harvest predators is the perfect solution. Be an easy answer to bring back a little predator/ prey balance and the pro predator groups wouldn’t say a word for fear of appearing “ politicaly incorrect “ 😂. I’ve never hunted Utah but seems like the legislature making game management decisions is never good. Declaring war on lions also seems stupid. I think you can bring lion populations down pretty quick if you don’t regulate the harvest. Why wipe out all the cougars in Utah?  It’s like 2 extremes of mismanagement. Washington won’t manage lions and Utah wants to kill them All. Weird