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Mark Freeman Commentary Cougars walk line between predator and prey Brooks Fahey and Mark Simmons agree on at least one thing � neither is pleased about a state proposal to kill as many as 50 cougars as part of a study into the impact cougar predation has on Oregon�s deer and elk herds. But the two men couldn�t be farther apart on why. Fahey, director of the Eugene-based Predator Defense Institute, maintains that no cougars should die in the name of researching what he believes biologists already know � that weather and habitat, not cougars, are the main causes of fluctuations in Oregon�s deer and elk herds. "I don�t think there�s any reason at all to be taking these animals out," Fahey says, "when they know that predators are not the problem." Simmons, a Republican who is House majority leader for the Oregon Legislature, also doesn�t like the number of cougars tapped to die in the name of science. But Simmons thinks far more cougars should be killed. Cougars, he maintains, are at the root of declines in big-game herds that rural Oregon�s sport-hunting economy needs. "I�d rather see a more aggressive approach, personally," says Simmons, of Elgin. "I don�t believe (50 cougars) is quite enough. They�re a public-safety problem, and they�re depleting our resources for sportsmen." So goes this week�s twist in the debate over what role predators have in Oregon�s 21st century. Both Fahey and Simmons believe that cougar politics now take precedence over cougar biology, and that this shift is the hidden message behind the current elk- and deer-management study that is the new hot wildlife topic in Oregon. The ODFW is seeking a $1 million federal grant to study the role of nutrition and predation in deer and elk herds in northeastern and southwestern Oregon. The controversial part of the study calls for tracking some specific deer and elk herds, and judging how well their fawns and calves can grow to adulthood with current predation levels as compared with 50 percent less predation. To do that, the agency proposes to kill half the adult cougars in two of the study areas, eventually eliminating as many as 50 cougars over the life of the study. The proposal is still in its infant stages, and the agency is taking public comment on it through Sept. 25. It�s a biological study knee-deep in politics. The proposed study is an ODFW response to an Oregon Legislature "budget note," which came out of a failed 1999 House bill that Simmons sponsored. The bill involved regional quotas the ODFW sets for sport-hunting of cougars and what the agency should do when the quotas are not met. Simmons wanted the ODFW biologists to kill whatever number of cougars is necessary to fill northeast Oregon�s regional quota. If, for instance, sport-hunters killed just 50 cougars last year in the Blue Mountains zone, where the quota was 91 cougars, then ODFW biologists would kill 41 cougars to round out the quota. "It asked that they simply meet their quotas," Simmons says. While the bill failed, it led to the budget note that Simmons and ODFW officials say led to the current study�s proposal. Simmons sees the study as a way to provide proof to make it more politically feasible for the ODFW to do what Simmons and others want to see done � roll back cougar numbers to where they were before Oregonians voted in Measure 18 in 1994, which banned hound-hunting for cougars . "I hope this study can quantify, to the satisfaction of the ODFW, the amount of damage cougars have (done) to deer and elk herds in Oregon," Simmons says. Fahey sees it as a way to satisfy Simmons and others who Fahey labels as having an "ultra-right wing agenda" that helps perpetuate the notion that the only good cougar is a dead one. The ODFW, Fahey believes, is an agency wrestling with itself over predator management, and that the agency would rather the legislature take the heat for demanding a predator study that has to kill cougars to understand them. "I think they�re throwing it back at them," Fahey says. "They know there�s going to be a reaction to this. "The study is being politically motivated by Simmons," he says. "It should be called �The Simmons Act�." Killing the study, Simmons says, plays into the hands of the anti-hunting political agenda, Simmons says. Keeping predator numbers high will keep deer and elk numbers low, Simmons says, thereby reducing interest in big-game hunting and eventually making hunting less popular. "If the goal, really, is to eliminate hunting, than it�s a perfect plan," Simmons says. It all goes back to the politics of Measure 18, which, ironically, both men see as a failure. Simmons says Measure 18 fails to provide for public safety and for sustaining a deer- and elk-hunting economy rural Oregon needs. "People and cougars shouldn�t be living on the same acre," Simmons says. Fahey says Measure 18 has failed to keep down the numbers of cougars killed annually in Oregon. In 1993, before Measure 18, sport-hunters shot 160 cougars, another 31 were killed as part of damage control and 19 were killed by cars or other reasons for a total of 210. In 1998, hunters shot 152, another 111 were killed as part of damage complaints and 19 were killed by other means for a total of 282 dead cougars. "We consider Measure 18, in a sense, a failure because more cougars are being killed now than before," Fahey says. And that is the politics of cougars. (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. 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