Hounds to hunt cougars up for debate

Washington has all sorts of gamey topics in the news this month, including whitetail buck hunting proposals, elk research in the Blue Mountains, hound hunting for cougars, chronic wasting disease and new access to thousands of acres for hunting pheasants and waterfowl.

And there’s also the story of one extremely hard-headed wild turkey.

Some of these topics will be on the table when the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission meets Friday and Saturday at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lynnwood.

A proposed pilot project to resurrect the use of hounds to hunt cougar in five northeastern Washington counties is on the agenda, although a difference of opinion between the state and the counties seems to be tying the plan in knots.

Basically, the three-year project would offer a limited number of special hound-hunting permits for removing cougars in areas where they have caused conflicts with humans or their animals.

The main hang-up appears to be over who can hunt in the special season that would run from late November through most of March.

Commissioners from Chelan, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties want only residents of those counties to be eligible for the permits.

Washington Fish and Wildlife officials say hound hunters from across the state should be allowed to apply.

“We’re talking about taking roughly 110 cougars from the five counties, although the commissioners think we should take more,” said Dave Ware, department game program manager in Olympia. “The agency is interested in reinstating hound hunting after it was banned because it lets us select sex and lets us manage the population better.”

The use of hounds for hunting bears and cougars was banned by passage of Initiative 655 in 1996.

“We can’t have people coming from all over like that because they’re going to have to get permission from landowners to open gates and maybe go in with snowmobiles and find where the cats are,” said Stevens County Commissioner Tony Delgado.

“This is a pilot program and we want it to work. It’s tougher when people cruise in from all over; they don’t know where the cats are. It would be much simpler to use county residents.”

Ware said he agrees that in some cases locals will have better access. “But this is a population management hunt and we think all hound hunters should have the opportunity,” he said. “If there is a specific problem area, we still have other tools like kill permits and depredation hunts that let local people take action.”

Chronic wasting disease looms as a threat to wild deer and elk, and the Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider a proposal to prohibit importing deer and elk harvested from states and provinces where chronic wasting disease has been found in wild populations.

CWD is a disease affecting the central nervous system of deer and elk. No animals in Washington have been found with the disease in three years of tests on hunter-harvested animals, and state officials want to keep it that way.

The rule would allow hunters to bring animal carcasses into the state if they are already boned out and processed. Under the proposed rule, deer and elk hides and capes would be allowed only if heads are not attached. Skulls and antlers would be allowed only if all soft tissue is removed. Finished taxidermy mounts would be allowed.

If adopted, the rule would go into effect Sept. 1.

Washington residents hunting in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Illinois, South Dakota, Nebraska and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan would have to comply with the regulations.

Waterfowl seasons will be set by the commission under a federal framework similar to last year.

Duck seasons are proposed to run Oct. 16-20 and Oct. 23-Jan. 30, with the exception of pintail and canvasback hunting, which would be closed Oct. 23-Dec. 6.

Goose hunting is proposed to be open Oct. 23-Jan. 30.

The early goose hunt in Eastern Washington would be Sept. 11-12.

The youth waterfowl season would be Sept. 18-19.

(Idaho, incidentally, is asking hunters to comment on whether they would like to shorten the upcoming season because of forecasts for fewer ducks. Details and comment forms are on the Web at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov.)

Washington waterfowlers would enjoy a lot of new opportunity under a proposal to allow goose hunting on a 30-mile stretch of the Snake River along Lake Sacajawea behind Ice Harbor Dam. Most of the shoreline is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is considering some walk-in hunting areas.

“The Ice Harbor pool has been considered a reserve for geese for years and a portion of it will still be closed to waterfowling,” Ware said. “But the birds have changed their patterns along the Columbia and they don’t rest there so much, so there’s no reason not to let hunters in.”

Hunters are invited to Ellensburg later this month for a workshop that will cover many more wildlife programs and issues. Among them:

“Setting a three-point minimum for whitetail bucks in northeastern Washington.

This proposal, supported by some area sportsmen’s group to increase the number of bucks was so controversial last year, the commission tabled the idea until the department could come up with better deer population estimates and public opinion could be solidified.

Workshop participants could help shape the proposal that would be presented to the commission for the three-year regulations package starting with the 2006 season.

“Elk management in the Blue Mountains. A new study could offer ways to improve populations.

“Proposals for a hunter access program similar to Montana’s Block Management, which gives incentives or pays landowners for allowing public hunting on their property. The initial emphasis would be on private timberlands as well as farms and ranches that offer waterfowl and upland bird hunting.

“Start-up for a new program that pays landowners to improve pheasant habitat and allow public hunting. Contracts have been signed with 14 landowners operating on nearly 10,000 acres mostly in Columbia, Garfield, Whitman and eastern Walla Walla counties. The average payment of $35,000 per landowner was approved in a one-time $500,000 program by the Washington Legislature. The habitat work won’t be underway until next year.

The workshop covering these topics and more will be held Aug. 28 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in room 200 of the Samuelson Union Building at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.

“We held the same thing last year and there were representatives of some clubs, but we would like to see a lot more hunters come and give us input,” Ware said. “We want to hast things out long before the commission brings them up for a vote.”

Peeping tom: Songbirds that inadvertently fly into windows often bounce off with a thud, shake off the headache and fly away.

But a wild turkey packs considerably more punch.

Edie Fruit had just turned on the computer in a second floor room of her home in the Mount Spokane foothills off Forker Road. She was walking out of the room when the double-pane window exploded into a zillion pieces.

“There was glass scattered into every inch of the room, and there was a turkey, shaking its head and then just standing there,” she said. “I don’t know how it didn’t break its neck.”

She called to her husband, Jack, and he gave the good advice to shut the door before the turkey could bolt into the rest of the house and raise more havoc.

“It got quiet and when I looked, the bird had flown out the window,” she said, noting that the exiting bird probably had a little more lift than it did on entry.

“It left a few feathers and a couple of calling cards collectively the size of a grapefruit before it took off,” she said.