https://biologicaldiversity.or...xNDU3LjE2OTQ5NzMzOTc.


For Immediate Release, October 25, 2023

Contact:

Claire Loebs Davis, Washington Wildlife First, (206) 601-8476, cldavis@wawildlifefirst.org
Collette Adkins, Center for Biological Diversity, (651) 955-3821, cadkins@biologicaldiversity.org
Dan Paul, The Humane Society of the United States, (206) 240-3804, dpaul@humanesociety.org

Legal Petition Seeks Science-Based Hunting Reforms for Washington’s Cougars, Bears

OLYMPIA, Wash.— Wildlife conservation groups today petitioned the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission to amend state hunting rules for cougars and bears. The legal petition asks the commission to restrict killings of these ecologically important carnivores to avoid overexploitation and population declines, and to better align policy with agency science.

If granted, the rulemaking petition would reverse the commission’s 2019 and 2020 expansions of cougar and bear hunting, which resulted in a 50% increase in the number of bears killed each year and kept cougar mortality above levels recommended by agency scientists. Among other things, the petition asks state wildlife managers to immediately close cougar hunting upon reaching area-specific quotas and institute a statewide “bag limit” of one bear per hunter.

“It’s shortsighted and unscientific to allow hunters to kill so many of Washington’s bears and cougars,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The state’s own biologists have found that killing cougars at current levels will likely lead to population declines and more conflicts with people. The commission needs to fix this, now.”

“In 2019 and 2020, the department decided to disregard the important work of its own carnivore biologists in its rush to placate special interests,” said Claire Loebs Davis, president of Washington Wildlife First. “We are asking the commission to return to a science-based management policy before it is too late for the state’s cougars and bears.”

“Since 2020, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has allowed trophy hunters to kill unsustainable numbers of rare and important cougars and black bears,” said Dan Paul, Washington state director at the Humane Society of the United States. “With this citizen petition, new policy makers now have an opportunity to correct this mistake and follow the best available science, including by the agency’s own wildlife biologists, who spent years in Washington conducting field research.”

“As a Washington resident, I look forward to my wildlife commissioners bringing this era of needless and ruthless overhunting to an end,” said R. Brent Lyles, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation. “Cougars and bears are critically important keystone species, and Washington’s current policies fly in the face of decades of research. It's time to bring scientific thinking back to the forefront of our state's decision-making processes. Washingtonians and our imperiled wildlife deserve nothing less."

The commission has 60 days to respond to today’s petition.

The petition was filed by Washington Wildlife First, Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States, Mountain Lion Foundation, WildFutures, Predator Defense, Coexisting with Cougars in Klickitat County, and Kettle Range Conservation Group.

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The legal petition asks the commission to restrict killings of these ecologically important carnivores to avoid overexploitation and population declines, and to better align policy with agency science.

I think I see the problem.

And whos science is the main question.

Seems just more junk science it seems.

We hunters always say "follow the science" in response to feel-good ballot box biology. If trained, experienced biologists in the game department recommend certain management strategies, then we owe it to ourselves to consider what they have to say. Of course, that assumes those biologists aren't biased in the conclusions they draw and recommendations they make, and that may be a poor assumption.

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Originally posted by DesertRam:
We hunters always say "follow the science" in response to feel-good ballot box biology. If trained, experienced biologists in the game department recommend certain management strategies, then we owe it to ourselves to consider what they have to say. Of course, that assumes those biologists aren't biased in the conclusions they draw and recommendations they make, and that may be a poor assumption.

It all falls apart when you get anti-human ideologs running the game departments.

I see a lot of them being hire to save the world from humans.

Fur-baby syndrome.

Interesting they ask for what already is taking place.

Cougars are already limited to so many per area. Once the total is reached the season closes in those units. Most don’t reach their allowed take per year.

Bears are far under utilized given the numbers available. Washington has lots of bears hence the two per limit. Not many hunters manage to get two in a season.

This is just another example of so called experts coming on the scene pretending they discovered something amiss. Unfortunately Washington like most western states is now managed by emotion rather than by the states own wildlife biologists who definitely see it differently from this petition.