No One Happy About Changes For Hunters

A thick hide has always been a prerequisite for a fish and wildlife professional. Nowadays, a flak jacket is required, too.

Campaigns are gearing up in Idaho and Washington to scuttle wildlife management and curb hunting of black bears and cougars by initiative.

Idaho hunters are arguing about extensions of cougar hunting seasons.

A protest is mounting over new rules that open either-sex whitetail hunting in far-eastern Washington for youths and seniors.

Congress is rewriting environmental laws to give wildlife conservation less clout against the onslaught of development.

Wildlife professionals are in the middle of these emotional and political thickets, scrounging for funding, mercy and a chance to do their job.

Controversies involving deer and cougars provide a glimpse of what a student might learn in Wildlife Management Headaches 101.

In recent weeks, both Idaho and Washington have announced plans to liberalize hunting for cougars.

The action was partly in response to growing numbers of complaints from landowners and recreationalists who have been plagued or harassed by cougars.

For the first time in 10 years, Washington will allow hunters to kill mountain lions during a general season. Anyone can buy a tag to hunt cougars from Oct. 12 through Nov. 10.

Hound hunting would not be allowed during that period in areas where there’s a rifle hunting season for deer or elk. That means there would be little expanded opportunity for hound hunting. The increase in cougar harvest would be minimal, wildlife biologists say.

Western Washington-based animal rights zealots are outraged, of course, because they’re working on an initiative that would ban the use of hounds. This would dramatically decrease cougar harvests, and increase headaches for wildlife managers.

Similarly, trouble is brewing in Idaho over a proposed two-week extension of cougar hunting next season.

On March 7-8, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission will decide whether to authorize a cougar season in North Idaho that would run Sept. 15 through February.

The reason is simple, said Jim Hayden, state wildlife manager for the Panhandle Region: “We’ve had an increase in cougars in recent years, and an increase in complaints about them.”

He admits estimating cougar populations is difficult. But higher harvests, more incidents involving humans and cougars, increases in older cougars and decreases of females in the harvest are indicators that lion numbers are up.

About 120 mountain lions have been taken in the 1995-96 season, compared with 94 last season and 73 in 1993-94.

Some environmental groups are teaming with hound hunters to oppose the season extension. The environmental groups tend to think cougars shouldn’t be hunted, even though studies have shown that cougars are inflicting perhaps irreversible setbacks to the endangered woodland caribou in the Selkirk Mountains.

Some of the thousand or so hound hunters in North Idaho oppose the extension mainly because an abundance of cougars spells a better chance to bag one.

But Hayden says he’s also being pummeled by complaints from the Panhandle’s big-game hunters, who contend the high number of cougars is taking a voracious bite out of the region’s deer and elk herds.

“Fish and Game is just trying to find a balance,” Hayden said.

The Boundary Backpackers are meeting with agency officials tonight at the Seven Oaks in Bonners Ferry to demand answers for extending the cougar season.

Ironically, a group of Northeastern Washington hunters has demanded that wildlife managers meet them tonight at Polanski’s in Chewelah to address the decline of white-tailed deer.

Cougars are part of the problem, said organizer John Newberry.

“Last year we did a drive in one drainage with seven hunters walking and four hunters on stands,” he said. “We counted two deer, six elk and three cougars.”

Newberry is particularly concerned about the Fish and Wildlife Department’s new regulation allowing disabled hunters, youths under 16 and seniors 65 and over to kill antlerless animals without a special permit.

“People are going to think we’re flush with deer up here,” Newberry said. “But whitetails are at an all-time low.”

Steve Zender, state biologist in Chewelah, said the idea came from hunters who felt the sport could benefit by giving and incentive to kids and a gesture of gratitude to seniors.

“There’s no doubt that deer populations are low,” Zender said. “They might not be as low as some hunters think. The weather was very poor for hunting last fall. Deer numbers are down, but they’re better than the harvest numbers indicate.”

Zender said he will recommend a major decrease in the number of antlerless deer permits for Northeastern Washington. That, coupled with low success rates of youth and senior hunters, should result in only a modest number of antlerless deer being killed next fall.

For some unexplainable reason, this particular controversy hasn’t arisen across the border.

Idaho allows a 31-day hunt in which any hunter can tag an antlerless whitetail.

“Shooting a doe has never been an issue here,” Hayden said. “Even with the open season, we take less than 5 percent of the antlerless deer. If you start restricting the harvest of does, you end up putting more pressure on bucks.”

Wildlife managers say they can live with the normal ups and downs of wildlife populations. But you can see why the pendulum of public opinion might tick them off.

You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

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