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Coalition files suit to stop cougar kill Federal-state project would kill half the cougar population in northeastern Oregon and Douglas County study areas By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune A coalition including two local environmental groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block a planned government cougar kill. The request for an injunction in U.S. District Court in Portland names the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, although the program is largely under the auspices of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The federal agency is paying for 75 percent of the $5.2 million project with the remainder coming from the ODFW. The five-year project would kill 50 percent of the cougar population in two study areas in northeastern Oregon and Douglas County beginning next year. Government biologists say the study is necessary to measure how elk herds respond to fewer predators. "This so-called research project is nothing but predator control disguised as science," said Lori Cooper, staff attorney with the Illinois Valley-based Siskiyou Regional Education Project. "Anti-predator politicians could not pass a cougar-killing bill in the Oregon Legislature, so they snuck it into an ODFW budget note," she added. Cooper and Brenna Bell, staff attorney for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Williams, represent the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs also include the Animal Protection Institute, the Fund for Animals, the Humane Society of the United States, the Sierra Club, Umpqua Watersheds, Cascadia Wildlands Project and Al Thieme, an elk hunter from Portland. The lawsuit claims the plan violates the National Environmental Policy Act and misuses funds designated for wildlife protection. Under the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, the funds can only be used to protect wild animals, according to the plaintiffs. Although the killing wouldn't begin for about a year, the lawsuit was filed now because scientists began live-trapping cougars to equip them with radio collars in December in both study areas, Cooper said. "We wanted to try to stop it before it proceeds too far," she said. "We're concerned about the bureaucratic steamroller effect." The plaintiffs note that the decline in elk populations in northeastern Oregon already was occurring before voters elected to ban hunting cougars with hounds in 1994. "(Blaming) a native carnivore that has evolved with these species for millions of years for a decline in population doesn't make sense," said Spencer Lennard, executive director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center. "They should be looking at factors that have come into play in the last 150 years - human impact on wildlife, roads, the loss of habitat," he added. "This is ludicrous. All large cat species on the planet are already in decline." Many ranchers and hunters have advocated controlling mountain lion populations, citing attacks on cattle and elk. Government biologists, who estimate that no more than 32 cougars would be killed, say the project would have no long-term impact on the cougar population. Moreover, they say it would determine whether predator population, poor nutrition or a combination of those factors is responsible for a decline in some of the state's elk herds. The project is necessary for the state to develop a plan to manage cougar populations, said Don Whittaker, manager of the ODFW's cougar program. "The study reflects input from the peer community as well as the public," he said. The program is a response to a 1999 Oregon Legislature order to study the cougar-elk issue. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.