January 2000
Contact: Tim Smith, Legislative Liaison (360) 902-2223

Situation

As Washington residents push deeper into the forests to work, live and recreate, they are having more encounters with bears and cougars. Not only are people moving into dangerous animal habitat, they are planting crops and gardens that attract elk and deer, the natural prey of cougars and bears. Moreover, they are making human settlements more attractive to predators by raising farm animals, allowing pets to run freely and leaving garbage and pet food uncovered.

At the same time, cougar and black bear populations are healthy and growing. Aggressive hunting programs and programs designed to control the cougar and black bear population ended in the 1960s and 70s. More conservative seasons have allowed their population to double since the 1980s. Currently there are approximately 30,000 black bear and a minimum of 2,500 cougar in Washington.

In 1996, the public passed an initiative banning the use of dogs to hunt bears and cougars. The same initiative banned the use of bait to hunt bears.

Problem

Conflicts between people and cougars and bears are increasing dramatically. The number of confirmed cougar and black bear complaints reported to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife by the public has nearly quadrupled since 1995. WDFW received 927 confirmed cougar and 786 confirmed bear complaints in 1998. With the complaints come more property damage, livestock and pet killings and human safety issues. WDFW lacks resources to deal with these issues in several critical areas, including:

• Personnel to respond quickly to cougar and bear threats
• Better scientific understanding of cougar and bear behavior in populated areas to respond appropriately and management options
• Personnel to educate the public about ways to minimize threats from dangerous animals
• Public outreach and education programs and materials for the public

WDFW estimates it takes 16,541 staff hours to respond to the number of many dangerous animal calls received in 1998. Researching, capturing and relocating the animals requires another 2,240 hours of staff time. Public education requires another 4,695 hours for a total of 23,746 staff hours.

Proposal

Gov. Gary Locke has requested $1.1 million in the 2000 Supplemental Budget to fund 10 WDFW positions. If funded, WDFW plans to create response teams that will be stationed in areas where dangerous animal encounters are most critical. Each team will consist of a biologist and an enforcement officer. During work hours on Monday-Friday, dangerous wildlife calls will be sent to a response team by a WDFW customer service representative. The Washington State Patrol will forward off-hour calls to the teams. Teams will have primary responsibility for dangerous wildlife calls, freeing other staff for other critical activities, such as species and habitat protection work and poaching control.

Other responsibilities for the cougar/bear response teams include:

• Assisting research: learn more about cougars that move into suburban and urban areas by capturing and using radio equipment to monitor the animals movements. The teams will assist biologists in gathering scientific data. Some information will be used to develop programs that will significantly reduce human–dangerous animal conflicts.
• Educating the public about food and garbage storage, pet control and other practices that attract bears and cougars. "Bear Aware" and "Cougar Aware" community meetings with concerned citizens, road signs, educational kiosks, printed materials and other techniques will be used
• Conducting property damage assessments and working with the agricultural community to determine how to minimize wildlife damage problems

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