WA Fish and Wildlife to initiate bear, cougar rule changes

“By approving this petition, the Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission directs the state’s agency staff to ‘open rulemaking’ that will address the petition’s key points, with the expectation that the new, more protective rules will be in place when the cougar hunting season opens again next Fall,” read a Mountain Lion Foundation press release.

Washington Wildlife First was joined by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Washington Director of The Humane Society of the United States, Mountain Lion Foundation, Predator Defense, Wildfutures, Coexisting with Cougars in Klickitat County and Kettle Range Conservation Group.

The petition seeks the reversal of changes made to three season rules over the last four years, as well as better conservation measures.

The changes

The 2019 change to bear hunting regulations increased bear hunting opportunities. WDFW “... had just learned that bear densities were much lower in many areas than previously believed, and that the statewide population was about 30% smaller than long assumed,” the petition stated.

Bear seasons are set based on the percentage of females killed, and age of bears killed.

Changes to cougar hunting season, adopted 2020, increased the potential legal harvest of cougars by roughly 50%, according to the petition.

“We looked at the previous year’s numbers, the harvest rates that had been hit year after year, which did exceed the guidelines. And we basically gave the commission the option to consider elevating the guidelines to that three-year average that we had seen in those areas, because it was happening anyway,” said Eric Gardner, WDFW wildlife program director.

Petitioners allege that cougar harvests were already unsustainably high.

The changes also allowed unlimited kill of subadult cougars. However, the number of subadults killed has not risen significantly, said Game Division Manager Anis Aoude.

Both changes were made permanent in 2021 by removing the “sunset dates,” which the petition states is a violation of the 2015-2021 Game Management Plan (GMP). The GMP mandates a review of rules for all other game species every three years. This was deemed useful because these regulations didn't need their specific dates periodically re-aligned, Aoude noted. “The calendar was the same,” he said.

The changes were made following “social political stress ... small group of Washington residents,” focusing on public input at a Spokane meeting in March 2019, the petition alleged.

“The state’s bear and cougar populations may have already sustained severe damage,” petitioners wrote, with bear populations potentially reduced by 12% in the 2022-2023 season.

“The petition asks for a series of changes which would prevent excessive hunting, and would reinstate more protective policies that have been slowly eroded since 2017,” Josh Rosenau, Mountain Lion director of policy and advocacy, said in a press release.

The results

Despite record sale of 69,632 cougar hunting licenses in Washington during the 2021-2022 hunting season — a rise of more than 23,000 from the season prior — the number of cougars killed remained “relatively flat” and the 2022-2023 season’s kill declined in comparison. The petitioners allege this indicates a drop in population after seven years of unsustainable harvest.

“We hunt cougars lightly enough that only certain areas drive what we do,” Aoude said. “Again, we would like to change that.”

He emphasized that his department is working to update and improve old regulations Although Aoude opposed the petition, he and all other attendants agreed on the need for better regulations.

Although a 50% increase in the number of Washington bears killed followed the changes, “from the data where we have densities, this system is not leading to over-harvesting,” Aoude said. The number of kills came back down two years later, "and it’s come back up since. This is something we saw in harvest trends all the time,” Aoude said. “The west side saw the fewest regulation changes, but had the highest harvest.” Rather, hunter’s success increased, due to either population growth or bears concentrating by food resources in times of scarcity. The regulation changes contributed another 11% increase in kills.

Density studies, including those from before 2019, suggest bear populations are doing well across the state, with a few exceptions, Aoude said.

“We’ve always known that [the current] method has limitations, and we’re always working toward anther approach,” Aoude added. WDFW scientists are already working on a GMP to address issues with current rules. “We’re getting there," Aoude said. "Were just not there yet.”

The decision

“I’ve been on the commission four years, I am really tired of arguing back and forth about bears and cougars. I’d like to see it done sooner than later,” said Commission Member John Lehmkuhl. “... Frankly, I don’t want to wait another year.”

While some commissioners expressed concern that accepting the petition would push back the GMP work, Commission Chair Babara Baker expressed concern on the urgency of changing regulations before the 2024 fall season.

“I think this has been a huge push towards getting where we all want to go and that include staff of the agency who are doing the modeling efforts,” Baker said. “That would require a lot of work. It’s possible. ... It might not be based on peer-reviewed data. But it’s possible.”