Ore. wildlife biologists seek to expand cougar hunting zone

Apr 30, 2007
AP
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife wants to increase the year-round cougar hunting zone in southwest Oregon by more than 15 percent, allowing hunters to kill more cougars in summer.

The year-round zone would expand to 755,000 acres from 635,000 acres. Mark Vargas, an agency biologist, said the extra acreage has a high concentration of cougars.

The new lands would allow hunters with general-season cougar tags to hunt June 1 through July 31, beginning in 2008, the (Medford) Mail-Tribune reported. Sport-hunting for cougars currently is banned those months on all land outside the five year-round zones.

The idea is part of a package of big-game regulation proposals the agency has sent to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission for consideration. After a series of public meetings in early May, the commission will hear testimony about the expansion during its May 11 meeting.

Vargas said landowners who discover cougars on their property during summer have been frustrated that they could not hunt them under sport seasons.

"It's not just about responding to damage and human-safety situations," Vargas said. "It's about trying to stop those from occurring in the first place."

The proposal has been criticized by Sally Mackler, the wildlife chairwoman of the Oregon Sierra Club. Mackler said she sees no reason to expand the sport-hunting boundaries because current laws allow landowners to shoot cougars that cause damage or human-safety concerns on their land.

"There's already plenty of hunting opportunity already, if those guys aren't too lazy to get off their porch to shoot a cougar," Mackler said. "

Ron Anglin, ODFW's Wildlife Division administrator, said he expects interest to be high on both sides of the issue.

"Anything that has anything to do with cougars right now is a very sensitized thing for everybody," Anglin said. "It really polarizes people."

What is sport hunting?