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http://www.omniture.com --> Email Story to a Friend June 3, 2006 Cougar plan impacts Jackson County By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Parts of rural Jackson County will be targeted for killing up to 24 cougars over the next year in an attempt to curb damage and safety conflicts under Oregon's newly adopted cougar-management plan, authorities said. Lands ringing Jackson County's major towns are among three new zones tapped to test whether killing up to 20 percent of the area's cougars will reduce livestock damage, big-game loss and human-pet safety conflicts, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Department biologists will either use a Wildlife Services agent, department employee or hired hunter to do the work, and tracking hounds likely would be the main tactic, ODFW biologists said. The agency will then measure its effectiveness using a series of criteria laid out in its cougar plan, mainly by tracking the numbers of cougars killed other than by sport hunters in the ensuing year. "Will the number of people shooting cougars as a result of damage go down? I think it will," said Mark Vargas, ODFW wildlife biologist. "I think it will work. We just have to give it time." Actual cougar complaints, most of which go unverified here, would play a secondary role in the monitoring, Vargas said. Complaints mainly will help define where those 24 cougars will be killed, he said. Animal-rights activists instantly railed against the plan as based on faulty science and poor computer models that could wreak havoc on the region. "The red flags have already been waved," said Sally Mackler, wildlife chairwoman for the Sierra Club of Oregon. "Now the fact that our area is being used as a test run is really unfortunate." Jackson County Commissioner Jack Walker, a supporter of bringing a Wildlife Services agent back to Jackson County, said Friday that he welcomes this first implementation of the cougar plan. Walker said he believes the plan is necessary to quell a flurry of damage complaints, livestock and pet losses and fears that Jackson County could draw the dubious distinction of being home to the first human fatality by a cougar in Oregon in more than a century. "We're ending up with what I think are close calls," Walker said. "I don't want to wait until some kid is killed or some lady feeding her horses is attacked." The so-called "Jackson County Target Area" encompasses 963 square miles around the Bear Creek corridor, the Lake Creek and Applegate areas and the upper Rogue River from Trail down to the Josephine County border. The East Beulah Livestock Target Area comprises 1,000 square miles in Malheur County, where a maximum 12 cougars will be killed to help reduce livestock damage. The Heppner Target Area encompasses 1,189 square miles, where up to 30 cougars will be killed to reduce loss of big-game animals, according to ODFW documents. The three were chosen from a list of 14 possible target areas statewide as developed by ODFW district and regional biologists since the cougar plan was adopted last month. ODFW Wildlife Division Administrator Ron Anglin said he chose them because he wanted one target area for the three main complaint categories outlined in the cougar plan — livestock damage, big-game damage and human-pet safety. The Jackson County Target Area's main focus, according to ODFW documents, is to reduce human safety and pet conflicts. Anglin said he plans to brief the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on the plan during its meeting Friday in Salem. The target areas do not require separate commission approval, he said. Kelly Peterson, of the Humane Society of the United States, said she believes the commission should be asked to approve the target areas, which she sees as providing no "reasonable assurance" that the program will work. "It doesn't matter what they call it," Peterson said. "It's the same dead cougars killed by government agents with tracking hounds." ODFW's cougar population model — one much maligned by critics — estimates the region has a density of 12.6 cougars per 100 square miles, or 121 cougars. Vargas said he set the cougar target here at 24 as a "fairly conservative" level of 20 percent of the estimate. "I'd like to see us go in slow," Vargas said. The Target Area is within Zone B of the ODFW's sport-hunting quota zones, covering most of the south and central portions of the West Cascades. Zone B's quota is currently 173 cougars, and the commission will consider dropping that Friday to 165 for all of 2006. ODFW computer models estimated the zone's cougar population at 1,538 animals in 2004. Anglin said sport hunting and the target-area killing would stop if all known dead cougars — those killed by sport-hunters, by target area agents and other non-hunting sources — reach that quota, Anglin said. Last year, sport-hunters killed 28 cougars and 42 died from non-hunting means in Zone B, ODFW statistics show. Vargas said the target area was crafted independently of the move by Jackson County commissioners this week to approve $30,000 to hire a federal Wildlife Services agent, commonly called a government trapper, to deal with cougars, bears and other wildlife issues during a six-month period. Walker said the commissioners were seeking federal matching grants to fund the agent for the remainder of the budget year, which begins July 1 and runs through June 30, 2007. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] . 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