Plans to Revive Lion Hunt Clouded by Court’s Ruling

A Superior Court judge on Monday rejected Fish and Game Commission regulations intended to permit California’s first mountain lion hunting season in 16 years, and opponents said it is unlikely the state can comply with the ruling in time to start the hunt Oct. 8 as scheduled.

“Until the Fish and Game Commission complies with the California Environmental Quality Act there will be no trophy hunting of mountain lions,” predicted Michael H. Remy, attorney for the Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation, after the decision by Judge Lucy McCabe.

Earlier Ban Expired

“I see very little chance there will be a hunt in 1988,” Remy said.

California banned trophy hunting of mountain lions after the 1971 season, although cougars that destroy livestock or threaten people may be killed. The ban expired in 1986, and Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed a bill to extend it. The Fish and Game Commission, made up of Deukmejian appointees, then became responsible for setting the rules for a hunt.

The commission on April 8 approved a 79-day season in Northern and Central California beginning Oct. 8; 190 hunting permits were to be sold for $75 each. It was estimated that about 60 cougars actually would have been killed.

But the Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation brought suit in McCabe’s court. Last year, McCabe had stopped plans for a similar hunt, ruling that the commission had inadequately considered the environmental impact.

Remy said that McCabe on Monday raised questions about adequate public review of the final environmental impact report on the hunt. He said some elements of the final report had not been included in a draft report subject to public review. Those issues included cumulative impact on mountain lions of 1987 brush fires, the need for buffer zones dividing hunting area from national parks and the effect of hunting on a federal study of the animals now under way.

She ruled that the commission must circulate for public comment an environmental impact report that includes those issues, Remy said.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Denis Smaage, who represented the state in the case, could not be reached for comment and was reported to be meeting with commission staff members to consider a response to the ruling.

But Albert C. Taucher, president of the Fish and Game Commission, was dismayed. “We did everything in God’s world to do what that gal said. We did everything by the book, plus,” he said.

Taucher said that mountain lions are overpopulated in California and need to be hunted for management purposes.

But Sharon Negri, executive director of the Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation, said the commission’s estimate of the cougar population, 5,100, is based on unreliable information. She said experts will need five years to study the cats and accurately estimate their population.