Bear And Cougar Hunting Rules Approved By Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission approved WDFW-recommended cougar and bear hunting rules nearly unanimously this afternoon.

The cougar framework theoretically allows for the hunter harvest of about 10 more cats across the state than the recently concluded season, according to a staff analysis, and it switches from a 13 percent cap on hunting and conflict removals to an upper bound of 16 percent. Units that on average exceed 16 percent over recent years revert to a 10 percent cap for three years.

The bear rules open season August 1 across the state with a two-bear limit, except for the Okanogan and Willapa Hills, where it will start two weeks later with a bag of one, for differing reasons.

Today’s twin votes essentially wrap up very long looks at cougar and bear hunting, populations and science, and they also flow from environmental groups’ 2023 petition for WDFW to reopen rulemaking around the animals.

With cougars, Commission Chair Barbara Baker took the debate even further back in time to the mid-1990s’ animal-rights initiative that banned hound hunting and led WDFW to expand the opportunity from permits and a seven-and-a-half-week season to a general-season, seven-and-a-half-month-long hunt with tens of thousands of over-the-counter tags sold to boot hunters.

Nonetheless, WDFW and several commissioners feel pretty strongly about the science supporting the mountain lion rules as proposed. Whether the cap was 10, 13 or 16 percent, all are “well within levels” allowing for a stable population and the big cats’ intrinsic territoriality needs, according to Dr. Donny Martorello.

Commissioner Jim Anderson of Buckley made the motion to adopt the staff proposal, arguing that environmental groups had “moved the needle” on cougar management, WDFW’s framework was a “good approach,” “conservative,” provided opportunity and “framed the range of our mandate very well.”

He was seconded and echoed by Commissioner Steven Parker of Yakima, but Commissioner Lorna Smith of Port Townsend proposed a surprise amendment to use a 13 percent cap statewide instead. She essentially argued that it was simpler than needing to move the cap up and down, and she was seconded by Commissioner Melanie Rowland of Twisp.

Rowland said that there would be hunting opportunity too with 13 percent, though “maybe not in your backyard,” and while she acknowledged that the 10 and 16 percent framework probably would be fine in terms of the cougar population, she worried about uncertainties such as climate change and avian influenza.

This winter, two wild Olympic Peninsula mountain lions died from bird flu after consuming infected prey. However, when asked about it, that spillover did not have Dr. Martorello ringing the alarm bells for the state’s cougar population, as neither prevalence nor spread among the big cats was being seen.

Commissioner John Lehmkuhl said he couldn’t support Smith’s amendment. He said the commission was getting stuck on “hard numbers,” and he pointed to their mandate’s opportunity element to say the staff recommendation provided that and the amendment didn’t.

He was echoed by Commissioner Woodrow Myers of Spokane, who noted that the biggest threat to cougars – and cougar hunting – is conflict removals, which counted towards mortality caps this past season for the first time and will continue to going forward. Conflict mortalities begin counting toward the cap April 1, while season opens September 1.

Myers termed WDFW’s proposal “a reasonable compromise between science and hunting opportunity.”

That pretty much killed the last chance for Smith’s amendment, and she pulled it.

Baker said the commission didn’t need to spend time worrying about a handful more cougars being killed by hunters but about reducing conflict removals. According to a WDFW analysis, a total of 241 independent-aged cougars were killed over the past year, 151 by hunters, or 63 percent, and 90 by game wardens and others, or 37 percent.

Game Division Manager Anis Aoude said that hunter harvest hasn’t varied much though the total take did due to those conflict removals. He also pointed out that 10 state staffers had worked nine months on the cougar hunting proposal, raising the specter of potentially wasted work if the commission went in another direction. “Is it too high?” he asked rhetorically about the harvest. “No, it isn’t.”

In the end, Baker, Anderson, Lehmkuhl, Parker, Myers and Smith voted in favor of WDFW’s cougar rules and Rowland voted no.

NEXT, THE COMMISSION MOVED onto the bear rules. Given the controversial and long (continuing) battle over the panel’s decision on the spring season, there was a chance here for more cringe, but the package WDFW put together was approved unanimously.

The rules include a new ban on shooting cubs or sows with cubs – previously, Washington bruin hunters have only been “urged” not to – and bear ID tests in more game management units where grizzlies may roam or could be reintroduced to.

And under the new bear harvest framework, if female mortality rates exceed the statewide average 8 percent intrinsic growth rate of black bears over the three prior years, hunting seasons are decreased in two-week increments from the opener and the bag limit is lowered to one. Only one black bear management unit, Willapa Hills, fell into that category this go-around.

In the Okanogan BBMU, the recommendation to move back season to August 15 with a limit of one came from district biologists’ bear density observations. According to Commissioner Rowland, that was linked to inconsistent bruin densities between a particularly thick area of the unit and higher, more thinly populated areas.

The vote on WDFW’s recommended black bear rules provided Chair Baker a platform to make a point about personal values and her public vote at a moment Governor Bob Ferguson is going to put his shape on the commission.

Baker said she thought that a bag limit of two bruins was one too many in her opinion, especially at the price of just $22 for the second tag, which she indicated was cheaper than the cost of a hamburger in Thurston County, where she lives, but she added that if the scientists thought Washington could have a two-bear limit, she would vote for it.

“I get tired of being told we’re voting our values, so I wanted to state that,” she said.

And then she voted with the rest of the commission in favor of WDFW’s rules.

As somebody then pointed out, put a second bear in the freezer for $22, and “that’s a big deal.”

Today’s votes on bear and cougar hunting rules now mean that the 2025 big game hunting seasons have been set. The commission had delegated authority to set deer, elk, moose and other seasons to Director Kelly Susewind, but reserved the final word on the two toothsome species for themselves.