Author: Denise Peterson

The Washington Legislature Passed  SB 5092 – Operating Budget Will help to Protect Washington’s Cougars

For immediate release

Date April 26, 2021

Contact: 
Debra Chase, CEO, Mountain Lion Foundation
DChase@mountainlion.org
916-442-2666 ext. 103

The Washington Legislature Passed  SB 5092 – Operating Budget
Will help to Protect Washington’s Cougars

Olympia, WA – SB 5092, making the 2021-2023 fiscal biennium operating appropriations, passed the Legislature Sunday, April 25 and will soon be signed into law by Governor Inslee. The budget includes a directive on cougar management in the State.

Photo: Dan Potter

SB 5092 will require the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), in coordination with statewide law enforcement agencies, to provide a report to the legislature by January 2022, on the number of cougars reported to WDFW as killed by local government law enforcement agencies, cougar pursuit training opportunities provided to local law enforcement agencies, and how cougar removals by local enforcement agencies impact WDFW’s cougar management strategies.

In addition, appropriations will be provided solely for WDFW to assist local jurisdictions in responding to cougar related public safety concerns. The funding is available to a local jurisdiction only if they have a signed agreement with WDFW recognizing cougar management authority is vested with WDFW. The agreement provides criteria to determine if a cougar creates an actionable public safety risk deemed eligible for financial assistance. The approved language within the budget notes that the mere presence of a cougar on private property alone does not create an actionable public safety risk.

The National Non Profit Mountain Lion Foundation is pleased with the outcome of this operating budget.  “We want to thank the Budget Leaders Christine Rolfes and Kevin Van De Wege.  This is great news for cougars in Washington state,” stated Mountain Lion Foundation CEO, Debra Chase. “Cougars are overhunted in Washington and this budget will help to ensure they are not killed just for existing and living their lives.”

Chris Bachman, the Foundation’s Regional Conservation Advocate commented, “This directive to the Department will bring accountability, transparency and makes clear that the mere presence of a cougar on private property does not create an actionable public safety risk.”

Cougars are a keystone species in the U.S. and are found only in western states and Florida. Hunted to extinction in the east they have an ecological impact that is greater than their numbers suggest.

Founded in 1986, the Mountain Lion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with a mission to ensure that America’s lion survives and flourishes in the wild.

This Earth Day, Touch the Earth

Click to watch our latest video.

51 years ago Earth Day was founded. One of the largest grass roots movements in support of environmental protections. That day in 1970, an estimated 20 million people attended the festivities and marched in the streets demanding that our government do more to save our planet. 20 years later it rose to 200 million and today it is estimated that one billion people celebrate the Earth and will march in the streets for stronger environmental protections this April 22nd.

This Earth Day, after a year that tested us beyond measure, many of us are anxious, bored, over worked or worse, unemployed. We are ready to get out of the house. To help you celebrate the importance of this Earth Day we aren’t presenting a webinar to watch, a town hall meeting to attend or even a march. Today is for the Earth and we are asking you to step up and do something really radical. Something that could very well change your life or at least allow you to see your life and the planet from a different perspective. We are asking you to go outside. Take a hike through a forest, walk by a lake or alongside a river. Hug some trees and put your bare feet in the water. Experience the natural world in all of its glorious splendor.

Allow yourself to indulge in an old fashioned adventure. An adventure where you don’t know how long the trail is, or where the hike will lead you, where it ends, or what previous walkers, runners, bicyclists, or hikers thought about it as posted on social media or in the latest review ap. So please, have an adventure, unplug and go outside.

As you embrace nature and your own inner transformation, you’ll discover that your power—and responsibility—to change the world around you are far greater than you’ve known.

Watch the beautiful video above as your entry into the wild and then get out there. Just walk or hike or ride a bike. Find a park, nature preserves, a forest or some other place that is natural and free. Discover what you have missed, listen to the quiet and pay homage to the planet that sustains us.

Earth. This is your Day. We recognize you. We celebrate you.

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Sentinels and Seekers Project:

Photo: Sebastian Kennerknecht

In partnership with wildlife and conservation photographer, Sebastian Kennerknecht, we aim to build public pride and empathy for mountain lions as a means to change policy and potentially assist these cats in their ability to safely move through their habitat.

The Sentinels and Seekers Project will show the pride we have in the iconic cats that are currently protected and develop empathy for those lions that are not as lucky.

PRIDE: Mountain lions occupy much of the western US. Some individuals stand guard over the most sacred of our protected lands, like Yosemite and Glacier National Parks, and the Grand Canyon. These lucky sentinels occupy about fourteen percent of puma range. By visually depicting these sentinel cougars in the most iconic of US landscapes and habitats – showing their wildness and strength – the project aims to create a sense of national pride for them and the environments we have already protected.

EMPATHY: With your support, we can raise empathy and potentially establish policy changes for three separate wildlife habitat where the potential for wildlife corridors to be established is strong. Washington, California and Arizona have key areas that cause mortality of our cats attempting to navigate through human habitat. The photographs taken at these critical points are the catalyst for the empathy needed to protect these wildlife corridors.

The comparison of sentinel and seeker cats will introduce you to individual pumas allowing a connection to be formed between humans and cats with unique personalities and characteristics. A population of animals sometimes means little to a person, an individual cat, with a given name, means everything. Your help with this project means even more.

THE LOCATIONS

Olympic Peninsula, WA

Habitat: lush temperate rainforest

Barriers: peninsula exit points are getting cut off as Seattle suburbs expand. Interstate 5 proves another seemingly impossible road to cross for the cats.

Solutions: policy action to maintain corridors, fund-raise for 1-5 overpass.

San Francisco East Bay, CA

Habitat: oak savanna

Barriers: fast paced urban sprawl will cause isolated puma populations

Solutions: policy creation to protect wildlife corridors between populations.

Sonoran Desert, AZ

Habitat: arid desert

Barriers: Interstate 10 is a major movement barrier for cats dispersing north

Solutions: wildlife overpass over the four lane freeway.

CLICK HERE to support the Sentinels and Seekers campaign!

Wildlife on public lands in New Mexico are now safe from trappers!

Wildlife on public lands in New Mexico are now safe from trappers! New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law Senate Bill 32!! This bill bans traps, snares, and poisons on public lands across New Mexico.

For over a decade there has been a battle to get trapping devices off of public lands in New Mexico. We are thrilled to see this tireless work finally pay off. Now our public lands in New Mexico are safer for wildlife, people and pets. It couldn’t have been done without you!

Thank you all for the support!

Our thanks also go out the many organizations in the Trap Free New Mexico coalition:  Wild Earth Guardians, Rio Grande Chapter of Sierra Club, Animal Protection Voters, Southwest Environmental Center, New Mexico Wild, Project Coyote, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Voters of New Mexico, Endangered Species Coalition, Amigos Bravos, Defenders of Wildlife, and Sandia Mountain Bearwatch.

We are so grateful for everyone’s hard work.

Governor Newsom Announces Appointments

Governor Newsom Announces Appointments

California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose father co-founded the Mountain Lion Foundation, announced appointment of three members of the California Fish and Game Commission today. UC Santa Cruz ecology professor Erika Zavaleta has been newly appointed. Jacqueline Hostler-Carmesin, who has served on the commission since 2013, was reappointed as was Samantha Murray who has served on the Commission since 2019.

The Mountain Lion Foundation is encouraged by these appointments, especially given the significance of the Commission – for the first time in its 150-year history – becoming majority female, majority conservation, and ensuring tribal, marine, legal, and ecological expertise is available to guide Commission decisions.