Oregon cougar plan...

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predhunter16

New member
Makes me a little unhappy that they take away our right to use hounds and now they are going to trap them, I think the hunters should get to used there hounds untill a certain quota is reached instead of trapping the cats... gives us no chance for the sport anymore !! whats your guys' opinion???
 
My opinion is we got a bunch of retard's running ODFW. Why spend thousand's and thousand's of dollar's hiring professional trappers when you have a boat load of sportsman who are willing to pay good money to hunt these mtn. lion's?? It make's no sense to me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
I believe it was the voters back in 1994(?) and not the Oregon F&G that took away hound hunting privileges in your state. As I recall, the F&G came out against the inititive that banned the use of dogs for cougar and bear.
 

I think they are under-estimating mt. lions...Trapping them probably isn't the best idea...BUT I also believe since there are no dogs chasing them around we might see more and non dog hunters (like myself) have a better chance of spotting one and getting one.

Same thing happened here in WA and I have seen more and more bears as well because of this and I am grateful because when there were dogs hunting them I didn't ever see them...I have never been a big fan on hunting with dogs.

I would however be pro dog hunting if it were for only cougars
 
You got it right the tree huggers out number the hunters so we loose.
Then they scream like hell when a couger or bear comes walking through the school yard or scares some hiker.

Gary
 
You are correct. Not much you can do when the vote is controlled by suburbia. People who were raised on Disney and think Mountain Lions are cute lovable creatures. But that still does'nt explain why ODFW would rather spend money to fix a problem rather than collect money? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
The Governor of Oregon saw "hired guns" as a loop-hole in the law rather than fixing the law outright.

Here in Washington ....... our WFDW is stuck on denial as to cougar complaints yet ....... where the deer are getting hit hard in the mountains ......... same Department is directing hunters to problem cats ........ post season no less.

Three 44s
 
The problem is that the voters twice voted to ban the used of bait and hounds to hunt bears and cougars, so that put the handcuffs on ODFW. There were a few bill introduced by the legislature but did not get out of committee. The ballot measure did put a section on controling problem animial. When the ban took effect ODFW lowered the cost of the tag and did away with the controled hunt quota. The net resualt has been more cougars harvested than before the ban took effect. There is a quota on the number of cougars harvested from each zone but it has rarely been reached. Most of the harvest when hounds were used were the big Tom's because they would back the hounds off a smaller female.

ODFW is now in a positon where it has to respond to damage complaints and there is a lawsuit to have Wildlife Services (federal agency) file a NEPA before taking action. This will slow things down for at least a year. If ODFW hires a local houndsmen they have to have cougar dogs (since they have not been run in Oregon they are far and few)or bring in some one from out side of the state and they are not familar with the area. The other problem is that the people they hire have to pass a background check.

Add to this the pay will be lower range of keeping a family going you will have very few people willing to take the job.
 
Pomoxis pretty much wraped it up in a bundle.
Over this away only two areas meet the criteria to reduce cougar numbers, Heppner and Malheur units.( has to do with game counts) With the Feds out for the time being, Heppner is trying to trap the cats using ODFW personel.
Pretty steep learning curve to try and reduce cat numbers by 40 percent.I got my doubts the feds could reduce the numbers that much with out some good dog men.

Your sure right bout not getting rich on a tech 1 salary, ya gotta have a liking for the work and be able to live on grilled cheese sandwiches.

Maybe suberbia will someday figure out they had a great deal with some of us houndsmen doing it for free, and adding to the states revenue to boot.
Nah, to simple.
 
It also makes no sense that they only allow one tag per person in areas that have high numbers and the quotas are never reached. An active cougar hunters season can come to an end quickly.
 
One thing I noticed when I used to take a few hunters out with the dogs. They all said they wanted a big tom, they shot the first mature cat that climbed. I only had one hunter decline a 80 lb female, said he had one that size already.

I kept records for several years in the two units I hunted, it was pretty much even across the board for sex and age of cats taken.
 
The ODFW is just trying to somehow get the cat number under control. The voters have twice shot down trying to get it back the way it use to be. This current plan is a compromise worked out by the different opinions of groups that the ODFW thought they could get to work. UNFORTUNATELY, this plan at trying to control the numbers is also being held up in a lawsuit by the Humane Society of the United States. Believe me, the ODFW would love to have hunters kill the excess cougars but their hands are tied no matter what they try.
 
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speaking of the trappers in the heppner unit, there have been 5 or so siteings in the last few weeks around pendland lake. My grandpa has a cabin up there so thats kinda interesting.
 
From what I hear ODFW is not going to be asking for a fee increase in the next legislative session but the increase in the price of gas (and everything esle) may need to have a fee increase request in 2009 legislative session.
 
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Most of the harvest when hounds were used were the big Tom's because they would back the hounds off a smaller female.



Some of you guys kill me. I mean that is funny right there. It is pretty obvious that some of you have never hunted cats with dogs, so I really don't see how you can have an opinion here. I've heard it all, dogs barking through the mountains, scaring all of the "real" game away. I mean come on..... Take care, Mason
 
As three 44's stated wdfw is in complete denial.I do predator hunting and trapping on the Yakama Nation Reservation. this spring when I had some media coverage on the cougar problems in the populated area of the Res. there was 29 siteings in a little over 10 days while on their side of the boundry they would admit to none and cat kills was everything but cougar. yakamabreed
 
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