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Fish and Wildlife Commission to discuss wolf management plan, set waterfowl seasonsOLYMPIA — The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is scheduled to discuss the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW) recommended Wolf Conservation and Management Plan during a special meeting Aug. 4 in Olympia.The special meeting will be followed by a two-day meeting Aug. 5-6, when the commission is scheduled to take action on proposed 2011-12 migratory waterfowl hunting seasons and changes to cougar hunting regulations.The commission’s special meeting on the final Environmental Impact Statement/Recommended Wolf Conservation and Management Plan will begin at 10 a.m. Aug. 4 in Room 172 on the first floor of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington St. S.E. The commission will meet at the same location Aug. 5-6, beginning at 8:30 a.m. both days.Agendas for both meetings are available on the commission’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings.html.During the special meeting Aug. 4, the commission will receive a briefing and take public comment on the recommended Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. The plan is intended to guide state wolf management while wolves naturally disperse and re-establish a sustainable breeding population in the state.The plan contains recovery objectives that would allow the state to eventually remove wolves from protection lists, along with management strategies to address wolf-livestock and wolf-ungulate conflicts.The recommended plan was developed after a scientific peer review and extensive public review of the 2009 draft plan. The public comment process, which concluded last year, included 19 public meetings and drew nearly 65,000 responses. In addition, a 17-member citizen Wolf Working Group, which advised WDFW on the plan, met with WDFW staff 10 times from 2007-2011.WDFW will post on its website the final EIS/Recommended Wolf Conservation and Management Plan on July 28 at http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/. The website also contains information on the wolf plan development process, including past public input and the scientific peer review.The commission, which sets policy for WDFW, has scheduled three more special meetings to discuss the recommended Wolf Conservation and Management Plan and take public comment. Those meetings are tentatively scheduled for Aug. 29 in Ellensburg, and Oct. 6 and Nov. 3 in Olympia.The commission is scheduled to take action on the plan during its December 2-3 meeting in Olympia.Meanwhile, the commission is scheduled to conduct a public hearing and take action on proposed 2011-12 migratory waterfowl hunting seasons during the Aug. 5-6 meeting in Olympia. Under the seasons proposed by WDFW, waterfowl hunting seasons would be similar to last year.Also at that meeting, the commission is scheduled to take action on proposed changes to cougar hunting regulations in six counties in eastern Washington, where a pilot project authorizing cougar hunting with the aid of dogs was not extended by the Legislature this year.WDFW is recommending an increase in cougar hunting opportunities without the aid of dogs in Klickitat, Chelan, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties to continue to meet management objectives in those areas.In addition, the commission will consider a proposal that would modify the criteria for determining when cougars are removed to address public concerns for pet and livestock depredation and personal safety. The proposal would allow for cougar removals when complaints confirmed by WDFW staff exceed the five-year average.In other action, the commission will consider proposed amendments to the list of game reserves. The proposed amendments would clarify and update the boundary description for Swinomish Spit Game Reserve and eliminate the Ellensburg Game Farm Reserve and South Tacoma Game Farm Reserve.The commission also will be briefed on the new Discover Pass and the status of key groundfish species in Puget Sound. The commission also will consider for approval WDFW’s proposed 2012 supplemental operating and capital budget requests, as well as the department’s legislative proposals for 2012.
In other business, the commission deferred action on proposed amendments to cougar hunting regulations until its Aug. 19 conference call to allow time for further review.One of those proposals would amend cougar hunting regulations in six counties in eastern Washington, where a pilot project authorizing cougar hunting with the aid of dogs was not extended by the Legislature this year. WDFW is recommending an increase in cougar hunting opportunities without the aid of dogs in Klickitat, Chelan, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties to continue to meet management objectives in those areas.Another proposal would modify the criteria for determining when cougars are removed to address public concerns for pet and livestock depredation and personal safety. The proposal would allow for cougar removals when complaints confirmed by WDFW staff exceed the five-year average.WDFW game managers are recommending the amendments to cougar hunting regulations as an interim measure until the 2012-14 hunting season package is developed. Public discussion on the 2012-14 hunting seasons is scheduled to begin later this month.
Benjamin Mena Just get rid of them tags all together people only shoot them because their baby's and scared!!! Their ment to be running free :-)
2500 cougars in WA. 50% are female and they give birth to 2.4 cubs every other year. Kitten mortality rate is around 30%. If you do the math you would realize that the cougar population nearly doubles every two years.You should be thanking hunters and the WDFW for proactively trying to keep the populations below carrying capacity. The wildlife commission needs to make these changes immediately and consider increasing hunting opportunity across the entire state.
Better hurry the crazies have already started their efforts to stop more hunting opportunity.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150265257566761&set=a.390652606760.166104.385127436760&type=1&theaterFrom a Portland, OR resident that works at the humane society and cant spell...QuoteBenjamin Mena Just get rid of them tags all together people only shoot them because their baby's and scared!!! Their ment to be running free :-)
Nice work on getting the WDFW's attention on this, Kain.
Karen Dowe Hunters only want to use hounds because hound hunting of cougars is easier than not using hounds. The majority in Washington don't agree with sport hunting of cougars. We banned hound hunting because the MAJORITY clearly is against it. These hunters, the minority care nothing for wildlife except KILLING IT.
Karen Dowe Using hounds to track and tree animals is regarded as very cowardly. That is why it's been banned in some state including Washington.
Issue Scoping GuidelinesUnder the Governor’s Rule Moratorium, changes to regulations that are 1) not necessary for conservation, or 2) have not been specifically requested by those being regulated (hunters), should not be submitted for consideration.
Dear Wildlife Commission,On behalf of Washington For Wildlife I would like to thank the department of fish & wildlife and the wildlife commission for taking proactive measures for managing cougars in the counties that were effected by the legislatures failure to renew the cougar pilot program. This failure will increase livestock and pet depredation, human cougar conflicts, as well as increased pressure on ungulate populations. While we like to see the department taking steps to increase cougar harvests with other methods, we are concerned the proposed changes dont go far enough to make up for the numbers of cougar taken by the pilot program hunters. Last year boot hunters only took 100 cougar across the entire state for all seasons and special permits. The pilot program alone harvested 45 cougars, nearly half the number taken by boot hunters in only five hunt areas and with a much shorter season. Increasing boot hunter general season and adding very few permits, where the success rate is very low, will not be enough. We understand the departments concerns and focus on female harvest rates but we believe evidence shows that general season hunting takes an equal proportion of what is out there to take. Female cougars have much smaller home ranges that often overlap with sisters, mothers and daughters. According to the WDFW, and other management agencies, it is normal for the home range of one male to cover 3 or 4 female ranges. This means that even with counting transient males there is a slightly higher population of females. We believe the harvest data shows that. Too many males is just as bad for cougars as too few females. The competition for territory and females killed protecting their young are major factors in cougar mortality. Also the killing of kittens by males makes up a large percentage of kitten mortality. With a mortality rate of around 30% there are far more kittens killed than there are adult cougars harvested by hunters. An over population of males competing for breeding rights and territory also causes more human cougar conflicts as males are forced to seek territory in human populated areas.The changes being proposed to the public safety removal system are a great step in making up for loosing the pilot program. While these changes, and the increase in general season, may go a long way in making up for the loss of the pilot program, Washington for Wildlife has concerns about the reporting system it is based off of. There is growing evidence that some confirmed cougar conflicts are not making it on the list. According to RCW 77.12.885 the department is required to post cougar incidents online within 10 days of being reported to them. Yet, on May 10th a cougar was killed for livestock depredation and on June 15th a cougar was killed in defense and neither ever showed up on the website. In both these cases WDFW was notified and an officer was sent to pick up the dead cats. Sgt Kim Chandler is quoted as saying there were “several” reports of a cougar in the Woodinville area and it even killed a someones duck. This cat was later kill by a car in late July. Again, none of the reports of this cougar ever showed up on the WDFW website. On Aug first a cougar was tranquilized and relocated from Vancouver. Again this incident and many other are not being reported on the website. I can provide links to all these stories. How can the department , this commission or the public make informed decisions on the management of cougars when they are not getting accurate information?WFW thinks it is important to point out the fact that we are loosing hound hunters in this state. As the department and our citizens realize the value and effectiveness of having hound hunters for management of our large predators we are doing nothing to keep them. We rely on them, state wide, to keep problem cats under control but do nothing to encourage or provide them with opportunity to keep trained hounds. The WDFW MUST implement a state wide pursuit only season so that we can continue to have hound hunters for public safety removal system.Respectfully,Naithan KainCougar Committee ChaimanWashington for Wildlifehttp://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,78123.0.htmlhttp://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,76217.0.htmlhttp://www.king5.com/news/pets-and-animals/Male-cougar-killed-on-I-405-126530628.htmlhttp://redmond.patch.com/articles/a-bad-week-for-wildlife-on-local-roadways-cougar-and-bald-eagle-killed-in-separate-road-incidents-2http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/aug/01/hound-sniffs-out-cougar-in-tree-near-va-hospital/
August 19, 2011Contact: Susan Galloway, (360) 902-2267 Wildlife Program, (360) 902-2515Fish and Wildlife Commission amends cougar hunting regulationsOLYMPIA — The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission approved amendments to cougar hunting regulations during a conference call today.The commission, which sets policy for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), amended cougar hunting regulations in six counties in eastern Washington, where a pilot project authorizing cougar hunting with the aid of dogs was not extended by the Legislature this year.That amendment increases cougar hunting opportunities without the aid of dogs in Klickitat, Chelan, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties to continue to meet management objectives in those areas.In addition, the commission modified the criteria for determining when cougars are removed to address public concerns about pet and livestock depredation and personal safety. The change allows for cougar removals when complaints confirmed by WDFW staff in a given game management unit exceed the five-year average.WDFW game managers recommended the amendments to cougar hunting regulations as an interim measure until the 2012-14 hunting season package is developed. Public discussion of the 2012-14 hunting seasons is scheduled to begin this month. More information on those public meetings is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/release.php?id=aug1511a.For more information about future commission meetings, visit WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/.
"That amendment increases cougar hunting opportunities without the aid of dogs in Klickitat, Chelan, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties to continue to meet management objectives in those areas."Does anyone know what these increased opportunities are or when we will find out?
