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Show SanMectt to latter method is the one most heavily relied upon by the Division. Mr. Comicelli stated that none of these are good ways of determining cougar numbers.. It would seem therefore, that until a sound scientific method can be found and is utilized by the DWR, the last thing the state ought to be doing is increasing permits. Craig Axton, of the Cougar Coalition, takes it a step further and says that if the scientific data are not available on a species, that species should not be managed at all. As things currently stand, politics is the major player in deciding the cougar's fate. Provable facts are way down on the list. Public input just edges facts out for dead last. The reason I know this is that I have attended more cougarhearings than any civilized person should be expected to endure. I have heard the input from both sides. It ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime. On one end of the spectrum, a rancher describes, in detail, the death of a cow at the hands of a cougar. I can't help comparing the quick, efficient and at least natural method of the cougar's kill with the claustrophobic, impersonal, mass destruction of a slaughterhouse. At the other end is a rancher who has been a rancher for fifty years and sees the cougar as a being with intrinsic value, no less than a deer or a cow. Whatever the views, they all deserve to be heard. It is extremely difficult to stand up before twelve strangers, eight of whom are munching on Twinkles or staring at a speck just in front of their feet, and pour out the contents of your heart. (You can believe me when I tell you that if the fete of the cougar is not deeply embedded within your heart, you will not return to a second hearing). It is hard for both sides, but only those in favour of increasing kill permits are heard. The reason I know this is that they ask, every year, for an increase in cougar kill permits and are granted, every year, that increase. This year the number of permits is at 864, according to the DWR's cougar proclamation. This obscenely high number actually exceeds the DWR's own recommendations. Why? Well, the State Wildlife Board (which decides the number of permits) takes recommendations from various Regional Advisory Councils. Their recommendations override that of the DWR. The RACs are the creation of Governor Leavitt and their Intent heart-rendi- UTAHS YEARLY COUGAR SLAUGHTER Winter in Utah is not a good time to be a deer. It is an especially bad time to be a deer if it begins the way it has this year when, right at the height of the hunting season, the mountains are hit with four feet of snow. All at once and on a weekend at that. In an effort to escape the heaviest snow and find food, the deer are driven down from the sheltering peaks and into the waiting arms so to speak of the men in orange. (Who, I stress, arc not bad people. Let me repeat that I have nothing against deer hunters, elk hunters or any hunter who will eat the meat of the animal he kills. If you eat meat, hunting for and killing your own is certainly the most honest way of doing so.) The hunters have slipped a notch or two down the list anyway, in terms of the biggest threat to a deer's life expectancy. I think we all know what has taken over that number one spot with the Look out your window at yonder hillside. See those lovely La Salt of the the views Mt the Great Wellsvillcs, Sals, Lake, Timpanogos and spectacular the refineries? Yes, those big garages with the gabled homes attached. Up there among the trees where deer once browsed. There you go. The big number one. The strangest thing about these houses is that for all their size and extremely high visibility, they seem not to have been seen by the vast majority of Utahns (and when I use the term vast, I don't use it lightly). Talk to anyone; hunter, homemaker, politician or even environmentalist They just don't see it. In fact, I once attended a meeting of a major environmental group, held at the home of one of its leading members. To get there I had to go way up a canyon, through wooded (well, wooded except for the road, the driveways, the actual houses, and basketball courts and barbecue pits) lanes till I eventually found the environmental gathering. As I entered the home, I found the group bemoaning the dwindling number of bears, cougars and pine martens in Utah. A small group was happily absorbed in watching the little birds at the little bird feeders outside the kitchen window. I had to laugh. Actually, I had to leave. But I digress. As usual. I hope the point has been adequately - ng - four-lcvel-spli- ts, made. But back to the deer. Their situation consists of seven basic questions. Now that their former feeding ground houses someone's satellite dish, where will they live? Will they need to cross a highway to get there? Is the highway located anywhere near Price or Spanish Fork and if so who will take care of their surviving family? Assuming they find a new structure-fre- e space, will it be hunting season when they get there? Will they die a and place? And most importantly, lingering painful death of starvation in a will a cougar get them first? The cougar question may, in the logical sequence of things, seem the least of a deer's state. Not so. Ask any cougar hunter. Ask the State worries in our Wildlife Board. The cougar outranks heavy winters, extensive habitat loss, road kill and human hunters in contributing to the mortality rate of Utah's deer. Why else would the state continue to issue ever increasing numbers of cougar permits? Why indeed? The Division of Wildlife Resources can point to no scientific data to show any increase in the cougar population. They estimate a cougar population of In speaking with Lou Comicelli of the northern region of the DWR, I learned that this estimate is about as unscientific as an estimate can be. The four methods of determining cougar numbers are visual sightings via helicopter1; the "mark and capture" method, which involves treeing and tagging a cougar and seeing if you later recapture the same tagged animal; counting tracks; and going on the number of cougars harvested by hunters. The snow-strangl- Cougar Harvest ed ed 2000-250- 0. courtesy of the Wildlife Damage Review of interests, so that Utah's populace is feiriy represented. hunters and agricultural interests were represented. Here is how Previously only ranchers, the representation currently looks on the Northern RAC Of the twelve council members, two are environmental representatives. The other ten are a mixture of Federal, agricultural, sportsmen and business interests. ("Sportsmen" in this case does not refer to relay runners and downhill racers. The term is a happy euphemism for hunters. Who don't kill; they harvest With practice, you too can become a proficient user of these fon new words). So there you arc. A good mix of varied schools or thought, yes? The State Wildlife Board, the folks who make the final decision, are an even more diverse group. Of the seven board members, one is a rancher? one works for Barnes Bullets; one is a trophy hunter? one (the only wildlife biologist in the bunch) also coincidentally manages Deseret Ranch; one is a commissioner for Duchesne County; and two are is to bring together a cross-secti- on Pretty though, ain't it? So Uncle Felix got mad at Grandma and shoved the Residential - - Sales Commercial Installation - Drain Cleaning COMPLETE LINE OF PLUMBING FIXTURES Kohler - Grohe - American Standard Ejer - Moen - Delta - Briggs whole Christmas turkey down the sink and now the toilet is spouting water like a whale. ....CALL RICK Price Pfister HOT WATER HEATERS - GARBAGE DISPOSALS WHIRLPOOL BATHS - SPAS tom ICSES iSisIkam |
