State May Permit Limited Mountain Lion Hunt

Limited statewide hunting of mountain lions may be approved by the California Fish and Game Commission, ending a 15-year-moratorium, if a program presented by the Department of Fish and Game next week meets certain standards, the commission’s president said Friday.

“Whatever program the department offers must be backed by good sound biology--that is, nothing must be allowed to upset the balance of nature or threaten the existence of a mountain lion population,” said Albert C. Taucher of Long Beach, who was chosen recently to succeed Brian J. Kahn as head of the commission.

Taucher said he had attended a briefing on the subject Friday and, while refusing to disclose details, said the department’s ideas “sounded fine.”

The department’s program is to be revealed at a press briefing at 10 a.m. next Tuesday in Sacramento, followed by a formal presentation next Friday at a commission meeting at 8 a.m. at Long Beach City Hall.

Pressure to end the long moratorium on hunting of the big cats in California, imposed when authorities felt they were nearing extinction, was generated by lion attacks on two small children in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park near San Juan Capistrano last year, along with recent sightings of cougars in O’Neill Regional Park northeast of Caspers.

Caspers was closed to the public until Jan. 2, when it reopened under new visitor restrictions, and O’Neill, closed since Dec. 26, may open in about a month with similar restrictions.

Taucher said it was his understanding that a limited number of hunting permits would be issued and that this would be done on a seasonal basis, “just like with other game.”

In Sacramento, Bill Griffith, supervisor of wildlife management for the Department of Fish and Game, said the commission “will have no authority to allow shooting actually within Caspers or O’Neill parks.” He added that counties and cities have their own laws on the use of guns that could preclude the use of firearms in many areas.

Griffith said recent studies of the cougar population in and around the two parks and adjoining mountainous terrain seem to indicate there are “about half a dozen” roaming the area, probably moving back and forth over about five miles of open country that separates the parks.

He said that after the presentation next Friday in Sacramento, there will be public hearings in Redding in March and in Sacramento in April before final action on the hunting proposal can be taken.