Officials halt mountain lion killings at Kofa Refuge

State and federal wildlife officials announced they have suspended the killing of mountain lions at the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge for up to a year.

"I'm glad they made the decision they did, but it's after the fact," said Ron Kearns, a retired Kofa wildlife refuge biologist and game warden. "They have already killed the most important male to the lion population and were getting close to the most important female. They know they did some serious damage to the lion population."

The announced moratorium on "lethal removals" of mountain lions, also referred to as cougars, captured and GPS-collared on the refuge comes days after Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) threatened to take both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Arizona Game and Fish Department to court unless the practice was ended.

"They (state and federal officials) were told what they were doing was unethical and illegal and if it didn't stop, the conservation community would take legal action," Kearns said. "It wasn't a magnanimous decision on their part."

The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge had been allowing Arizona Game and Fish to trap and collar mountain lions on the refuge, then use the collars to track and "lethally remove" the ones that have preyed on more than two bighorn in a six-month period under its May 2007 Kofa Mountains Complex Predation Management Plan.

However, that predation plan, which is a state plan, did not apply to the killing of mountain lions on the refuge, said Kofa Refuge Complex Manager Mitch Ellis.

In the past year, Game and Fish has killed two mountain lions, both of which were
outside the boundaries of the refuge at the time, out of a small population of no more than five lions.

"I'm guessing there are only three left," said Kearns, who started the lion research program on the Kofa in 2004 when he worked there, by installing cameras at water holes. "That only leaves one female and two males."

On April 10, PEER sent a letter to Ellis stating the cougar trapping and killing program violated federal environmental law and asked him to stop killing the mountain lions.

Eight days later, on Thursday, Arizona Game and Fish and the Kofa NWR jointly announced that they would "cease killing cougars for up to one year so the refuge could develop a mountain lion management plan and environmental assessment" as required by law.

"It is not a compliance issue for us," said Gary Hovatter, information and program manager for the Yuma Game and Fish Office. "We are comfortable that we are within the law when we do the lethal removals. But it seemed reasonable to give the refuge the time they need to develop their own policy."

The refuge has the authority to study, survey and monitor animals, Ellis said, but when it decides to actively manage a species, which includes the possible lethal removal, then it needs its own refuge-specific plan.

One of the environmental assessment's goals is to determine whether mountain lions within the 665,000-acre refuge are responsible for a precipitous decline in prized bighorn sheep.

State and federal officials alike say the area has historically had one of the most robust herds of desert bighorn sheep in the Southwest, with an average of 760 animals. But the numbers have plummeted in recent years to fewer than 400.

The Kofa herd was once one of the most robust herds in the nation and has been a critically important source of transplant sheep for restoring desert bighorn sheep to Arizona and other southwestern United States mountain ranges for 51 years.

The agencies added that mountain lions, also called cougars or pumas, are major predators of the herd.

Ellis said the suspension of the killings was not a result of the PEER letter, adding that the refuge has been discussing developing a mountain lion management plan for the refuge and having an environmental assessment done since December 2007.

Hovatter said the suspension of the killings is for at least a year and if the refuge has not finished its plans or assessment by then, it will have to make a decision whether to continue it.

Ellis said the lion management plan will help fulfill one of the recommendations in the June 2007 joint Service-Department "Investigative Report and Recommendations for the Kofa Bighorn Sheep Herd" report.

Under the current arrangement, mountain lions may still be collared and tracked for research purposes. And Game and Fish said it will still continue to kill offending lions off the refuge if necessary.

---
James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.