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Show OCTOBER 1996 this is the place \ Ne EVERYTHING \WAS NY N\Y, un NY HW NY DN Ay WORKS FINE... (( 6} ACCEPTABLE y LEVELS wa” The naming of new national parks or monuments is rarely popular. In Utah, presidents have used the 1906 Antiquities Act to create Capital Reef, Cedar Breaks, Arches, Zion, district, it CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATOR X = At least ONE of the machines PUBLIc IS working! LATION TRS ©86 conservative N 4’...OUR EXPERTS ASSURE US.... af PRESs In Orton’s might be good politics to rail against monuments, but that kind of politics ignores good stewardship in favor of shortterm financial gain. (S FINE... JHE LEAK was B) NOT DANGEROUS... INCINERATOR WY nations. Hovenweep and half a dozen others as national monuments. Now, Utah Republicans are loudly criticizing Clinton's use of the Antiquities Act for the new Grand Staircase — Canyons of the Escalante National Monument. But without an Antiquities Act, most of Utah’s great national wonders would never have been protected. WY EY John Bogey Running scared after a flood of negative publicity, here, in Utah over Pres. Clinton’s new Southern Utah monument, Rep. Bill Orton has introduced a bill that would require Congressional approval for such desigG)_ | by John Helton PUBLIC SCORECARD Birdie The < Nature Conservancy has struck a plan to buy the scenic O Dugout Ranch near Newspaper Rock at the southeast entrance to Canyonlands National Park What if means is that the land will continue to operate as a ranch rather than be sold off to condominium developers. The Redd family has owned and operated the ranch since the mid1960s. Under the agreement, the Redd’s would lease and operate the ranch for at least 10 more years. The big ‘if,’ however, is that the Nature Conservancy must come up with $4.6 million to acquire the 5,100 acres. The Redd’s could get $6.2 for the instead Nature ing the G Now > million ranch on the open market, but will donate the difference to the Conservancy, in hopes of keepranch in tact for perpetuity. Bogey the Utah Association Counties wants Secretary of of Interior Bruce Babbitt to stop taking inventory of Utah’s wild lands. The counties, led by associate director Mark Walsh, says to re-inventory the public land would be illegal. He has asked the Utah attorney general to file suit against Babbitt. The AG's office has demurred. That makes Walsh see red. If Utah won't sue Babbitt, Walsh says his organization will. Of course it was Sagebrush Rebel Jim Hansen who dared Babbitt to reinventory Utah’s lands in Congressional hearings earlier this year. Hansen threw down the gauntlet to Babbitt, say- ing the secretary could not show him where 5.7 million acres of wild lands existed in Utah. ~Now Hansen, too, along with Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett want Babbitt to stop looking for any more wild lands. @ EDITORIAL Can Cougar Killing Be Stopped in Utah? ince 1990, the number of mountain lions hunted and killed in Utah has gone up dramatically each year, and now may be having a severe impact on the state’s population of big cats. Again this year, the State Wildlife Board has increased dramatically the number of hunting permits on cougars. This increase comes despite a lack of knowledge of the relative health of the population, or even how many cougars exist in Utah. Meeting in August, the Wildlife Board again set the stage for the state’s largest cougar kill. This hunting season, during the winter months, 550 or more mountain lions will be killed — hunted down by hounds and shot out of trees at close range by “sportsmen.” Last year’s record 452 kills eclipses earlier seasons, like 1990, when 217 cougars were taken by hunters. The seven-member Wildlife Board, dominated by hunting and ranching interests, is on record as saying increased mountain lion deaths will help spur the population of a Utah deer herd that simply isn’t growing fast enough to suit hunters. Here’s the reasoning: Let's kill more cougars, so the deer herd will get bigger, so we can shoot more deer. But that reasoning flies in the face of scientific facts. Biologists who have studied prey-predator interactions say that study after study shows predators, like cougars, have very little, if any, impact on the overall populations of herds — particularly deer herds. PAGE Christopher Smart So, where does that leave the Wildlife Board? It leaves them legislating by anecdote. Historically, the mountain lion has been demonized by farmers and ranchers. And, in fact, members of the Wildlife Board are on record as saying that it is the ranchers and houndsmen who are the experts on the cat population. If a cougar is seen wandering out of the foothills, or if one attacks sheep, the call goes out — the cougar population is out of control. This anecdotal-type information on cougars seems to be driving the Wildlife Board’s decision to continue to “harvest” mountain lions in ever bigger numbers. Anecdotal information and political pressure from rural state legislators, who apparently wouldn’t mind if there were no mountain lions left. At least one former member of the Wildlife Board lators put has said that rural legis- extreme pressure on the board and Wildlife Resources department to kill more and more cougars each year. A 2° very general guess by the Department of Wildlife Resources puts the cougar population at 2,000 to 2,500. But there has been no real census and that estimate is based on how much land — or cougar habitat — exists in Utah, rather than how many animals are really out there. If we accept the DWR estimate, that means that 25 to 30 percent of the cougar population will be killed this winter by hunters — with a little help from their hounds. Beyond that, however, is the fact that for every adult female cougar treed and shot during the winter hunting season, two to three kittens will die of starvation or exposure, Without real and scientific studies of the mountain lion population in Utah, the State Wildlife Board is simply shooting in the dark. It is this sort of policy making that has led residents of other states to force a halt of such hunting through the ballot box. A new organization called the Utah Cougar Coalition may propose to do just that. But it won't be easy. Forcing a ballot referendum is always a difficult and tedious task. To get one in Utah on hunting may be more difficult — it requires 10 percent of the voters in 15 counties sign petitions. Lacking that, it is difficult to see how to bring cougar hunting back into the realm of reasonableness in Utah. Anyone wishing more information, or who would like to help the Utah Cougar Coalition, can call them at 801485-4076. @ |
