Spring+Summer 2023 Newsletter

Volume 36, Issue 1 | Spring+Summer 2023

SAVING LIONS NEWS FROM THE MOUNTAIN LION FOUNDATION

The other day, an insightful colleague asked me: When is the Mountain Lion Foundation’s work complete? This is a great question, because it ties our mission — to ensure that mountain lions survive and flourish in the wild — to the bigger questions of why we do this work. Why are we so passionate about mountain lions?

My personal answer comes easily. I believe two things in my soul: First, mountain lions are living creatures that fundamentally deserve to live healthy and fulfilling lives, free from senseless persecution. Perhaps, like me, you’ve followed the development of the worldwide “rights of nature” movement, which recognizes the inherent rights of all living beings to exist and thrive. Mountain lions have a right to survive and flourish.

■ FROM THE DIRECTOR

Learn More→ Find the “rights of nature legal theory” on Wikipedia for a good primer on this topic.

On the Cover→ Mountain lions on private land adjacent to property owned by the Transition Habitat Conservancy and the Angeles National Forest, Northern Los Angeles County. Photo: Dan Potter

The second belief that drives my work is that humanity needs mountain lions for our own survival. When you look to the science, the research is loud and clear: Healthy ecosystems across North and South America depend on mountain lions, and we depend on those ecosystems. Published studies in the last few years have documented hundreds — hundreds! — of other species that benefit from lions, and particularly from their feeding sites. We depend on lions! As the climate crisis unfolds, I know that the work of the Mountain Lion Foundation is critical to keeping our natural world as healthy as possible in the years ahead.

So when is the work of the Mountain Lion Foundation complete? We envision a world where lions and people coexist, where sustainability includes the persistence of the human ecosystem in harmony with viable wildlife communities, and where wildlands are nurtured and not subdued.

When this vision is achieved, our work is done. Is that a long way off? Yes, it is — we have work to do.

Happily, every single day, I see more and more people (especially young people) turning their attention to solving humanity’s greatest challenges, including addressing the climate crisis, slowing biodiversity loss, and creating more equitable socioeconomic systems. These challenges will not be solved by one person or one organization — we’re all in this together.

Thank you for playing an integral role in ensuring mountain lions survive and flourish in the wild — forever.

R. Brent Lyles, Executive Director

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Toby Cooper Bob McCoy • Chair Don Molde, MD • Secretary Bruce Rylander • Treasurer Jim Sanderson, PhD Elizabeth Sullivan Fauna Tomlinson Chris Tromborg, PhD • Vice-Chair

STAFF

Gowan Batist • Coexistence Coordinator Lou Galgani • Membership Coordinator Fred Hull • Director of Advocacy R. Brent Lyles • Executive Director Paige Munson • State Policy Associate Chelsea Robinson • Office Manager Josh Rosenau • Conservation Advocate Lace Thornberg • Director of Communications

Mountain Lion Foundation • PO Box 1896 • Sacramento, CA 95812 • mountainlion.org • (916) 422.2666

Rest in Peace, P-22

A Reflection on the Life of the Iconic Puma of LA’s Hills

by Josh Rosenau, Conservation Advocate

Photo: National Park Service

P-22, the mountain lion who captured a home range in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, and in the hearts of Angelenos for nearly a decade, died Saturday morning, December 17, 2022.

His exact birthplace is unknown, but as a young mountain lion he made headlines by crossing two massive freeways to find his long-time home in Griffith Park.

These freeways that slash through patches of forest in LA’s hills challenge all wildlife, but create a special problem for mountain lions, a species that usually needs dozens or hundreds of square miles to find prey, to hide and rest, to seek mates and rear cubs.

National Geographic photographer Steve Winters’ iconic photograph of P-22 in front of the Hollywood sign came to symbolize the strength and courage needed to make that long crossing. It cemented the cat as an A-lister and galvanized a movement to save LA’s cougars.

Angelenos related to P-22. They saw him enjoying an excellent food scene, but making do with a far tinier home than his country kin. Freeways constrained his dating life, and theirs too.

He experienced nearly all the dangers threatening the survival of LA mountain lions: cars, poisons, humans, and inbreeding. Cars constantly threatened his safety and blocked his access to mates. His genes are now lost to the already inbred population. While California has stringent laws to protect carnivores from rodenticides, P-22 needed veterinary care for mange after eating rodenticide-tainted meat. Generally invisible

within busy Griffith Park, P-22 was occasionally sighted lounging on nearby sidewalks or apartment staircases.

Such close encounters can lead to lethal responses; luckily, his celebrity and good disposition meant people took those encounters in stride.

His easygoing way changed in the last month of his life, after he was struck by a car, lost the use of one eye, and suffered other injuries that made it hard to hunt.

When he attacked several small dogs, wildlife agencies had little choice but to track him and take him in for veterinary care.

During those last weeks, he was lionized by civic leaders and wildlife advocates. Comedians and screenwriters plotted elaborate heists to spring P-22, and LA residents vowed not to snitch on the cat’s location.

When euthanasia emerged as the only option, LA’s elected leaders launched plans to memorialize the lion with a statue in Griffith Park.

Work is now underway on a massive wildlife crossing across one of LA’s largest freeways. While it will open too late to aid P-22, the Liberty Canyon crossing is a gift to all his relations. The largest and most expensive urban wildlife crossing ever built, it is testament to the hard work of legislators, state agencies, philanthropists, and wildlife advocates.

As we mourn P-22’s death, and the fact that Griffith Park is once more devoid of mountain lions, we draw inspiration from his life and feel a stronger pull to protect and preserve the presence of these animals throughout their range.■

A Dedication to Mountain Lions Two Decades Strong After 19 years of service, Fred Hull will retire from the Mountain Lion Foundation in June 2023. Fred started with the organization in administration and took on many key roles throughout his tenure, including General Counsel and Director of Advocacy.

As the Mountain Lion Foundation has grown and evolved over the years, Fred has been a consistent and rock-steady driver of the organization through challenges and successes. He has worked tirelessly to ensure that mountain lions are not only protected but also given the resources they need to thrive, including helping to pave the way for the creation of the Annenberg Crossing in Los Angeles. He has been instrumental in the development of numerous policies aimed at safeguarding lions, and in raising awareness of the key role that mountain lions play in their ecosystems.

Fred has demonstrated how important teamwork is to the continued survival of mountain lions. Ever forward-looking, Fred has always encouraged his colleagues to harness new technologies. With his focus on using resources efficiently and effectively, he has ensured that our supporters’ contributions improved the lives of lions.

As a champion for mountain lions, Fred Hull is both fierce and gentle.

The positive impact he’s made for this animal illustrates well how one person really can make a difference in preserving our natural world for future generations.

As his colleagues at the Mountain Lion Foundation, we will deeply miss Fred’s kindness and quick wit, but we are excited that his retirement will grant him more time and energy for his family. We will carry on his legacy with the same diligence and determination that he has shown. Watch for your chance to express gratitude to Fred for his leadership, dedication, and ceaseless commitment to the protection of mountain lions to come this summer.■

LIONS FOR LIFETIMES Deepen your commitment to mountain lions with a simple, impactful legacy gift.

A bequest to the Mountain Lion Foundation in your will or trust ensures a close watch over cougars for decades to come.

For questions about legacy gifts, please contact our team at (916) 442.2666, ext.106.

Photo: Steven Dietz

Sample gift langauge available at mountainlion.org/donate.

Learning about Lions Seeking inspiration and advice on how to more effectively advocate for lions and other wildlife? Our Living with Lions webinars are for you.

by Lace Thornberg, Director of Communications

Mountain lions play a critical role in maintaining healthy natural landscapes, but their continued presence in those landscapes is often tenuous. Our Living with Lions webinars highlight the challenges mountain lions face while existing in a human-dominated landscape, as well as the solutions available to help them. Each month, we dive in deep with people who have passion and knowledge to share — scientists, journalists, authors, outdoor adventurers, policymakers, advocates and more.

See more cougar moms and kittens on June 21.

Photo: Denise Peterson

April 19: Best & Worst Places to Be a Mountain Lion in America

Like many of us, mountain lions have criteria when choosing where to settle down: What are my housing options? Can I find good food nearby? How’s the dating scene? In this webinar, the Mountain Lion Foundation’s own R. Brent Lyles will invite us to think like a cougar as he shares the foundation’s take on where we’d most want to live as mountain lions. Of course, Brent will have suggestions on how you can improve habitat for lions.

May 17: Predators, Pests & Power

Science journalist Bethany Brookshire, author of the critically acclaimed book Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, will discuss how our views of nature stem from what we want and believe about our environments, and show that the difference between what we consider a beautiful wild creature and pernicious pest is often a matter of fear, power, and our own vulnerability.

June 21: Trail Cams for Conservation

Trail cameras (cams) allow us to peek into the otherwise secret lives of wildlife.

Learn how the founder of Utah Mountain Lion Conservation, Denise Peterson, uses trail cams as a powerful tool for conservation, to improve social tolerance through education, community, collaboration and research.

July 19: Co-existence on a California Homestead

The owners of Beachfront Farms will share their mountain lion encounter and how the Mountain Lion Foundation stepped in to offer advice and practical support.

August 16: Hiking Through Lion Country

Name a long-distance trail and Renee “SheRa” Patrick has either hiked it, designed it, or it’s next on her list. With 11,000+ trail miles under her boots, she’ll be offering advice on how you can coexist with wildlife while recreating in wildlands and get involved in conservation when you get home.

September 20: On Crossings

Our conversation with Ben Goldfarb, conservation journalist and award-winning author of Eager, will center on the mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains and explore how roads have transformed our world, as he shares from his latest book, Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet.

Watch for more webinars in late fall and winter, as well as other events throughout the year. ■

HOW TO REGISTER

Unless otherwise noted, all talks will take place at noon Pacific time, via Zoom. Registration is required in order to receive the link.

Head to mountainlion.org and look for “Register for a Webinar” in the menu at top. Or, call our office at (916) 422.2666 and we can sign you up over the phone.

All events are free to attend, with donations to support our mountain lion protection efforts welcome. Registration for the first three events is open now, with later events opening as their dates approach.

Cougar habitat in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains Photo: Denise Peterson

A STATE-BY-STATE UPDATE

YOUR WORK FOR LIONS

by Paige Munson, State Policy Associate and Josh Rosenau, Conservation Advocate

Wherever mountain lions live, the Mountain Lion Foundation is there to advocate for their protection and conservation. Our advocacy work centers on implementing non-lethal deterrents, reducing hunting quotas, opposing trapping, and shifting management goals to achieve healthy populations. Here’s how members and staff are engaged in local decision-making, their successes and the challenges that lie ahead.

WASHINGTON

For more than a year, our members in Washington State have urged Governor Inslee to appoint commissioners to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission who consider carnivores an essential part of ecosystems, and who would apply the best consensus science to management questions. We are cautiously optimistic about the two new appointees who joined the commission this year and we have invited them to embrace a new spirit of peaceful coexistence with cougars. The new commission will have chances to revisit decisions that raised hunting limits in the Blue Mountains, and other recent controversial choices.

OREGON

We have urged the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to reduce their hunting quotas, conduct further research to estimate the cougar population, and implement a summer season closure to help prevent kitten

orphaning. They have declined to make these moves, so our work here continues. Mountain Lion Foundation members also weighed in against several bills which would have expanded cougar hunting or undone the state’s hound hunting restrictions. Our efforts were successful: those bad bills all failed.

CALIFORNIA

Our focus in California is on helping the agricultural community coexist with mountain lions through the use of nonlethal deterrents. Most depredations occur in hobby livestock operations, and we are able to provide education and resources that help people protect their livestock and coexist with neighboring lions.

Our petition to list mountain lions under the state’s Endangered Species Act is still pending.

IDAHO

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission voted to remove the hunting quota statewide in 2021. Currently, the only limitations that remain in place are bag limits preventing individual hunters from killing more than one cougar per year. This year, the commission entertained a proposal to double those bag limits in units with low hunting levels. The Mountain Lion Foundations asked the commission not to adopt that proposal, for the sake of the mountain lion population in Idaho.

The commison’s final decision has not yet been shared.

UTAH

In a shocking turn of events this past March, the Utah State Legislature put forth a bill that took cougar hunting management away from Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources and opened up hunting and trapping yearround. The Mountain Lion Foundation, our members, and a coalition of other groups (including hound hunters) urged Governor Cox to veto this bill, but he signed it. We will now work with partners and strive to get this incredibly harmful legislation overturned.

COLORADO

Earlier this year, we asked the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to standardize their approach statewide to manage the meta-population of lions instead of basing management on small areas. The commission has not yet released their updated plan.

SOUTH DAKOTA

During the last legislative cycle, Mountain Lion Foundation staff and members, Prairie Hills Audubon Society, and other organizations pushed back against a bill that proposed removing hunting limitations on private land within the Black Hills. Happily, this bill failed in committee, keeping lions in South Dakota a bit safer.

NEBRASKA

We have asked the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to close the hunting season on the incredibly small lion population in the Pine Ridge.

TEXAS

In the only state where mountain lions are classified as “varmints” and can be killed at whim, a grassroots effort, including Texas-based Mountain Lion Foundation ARIZONA Staff and members participated in the most recent pub- members, is seeking to have lions protected as a game species instead. Although the Texas Parks and Wildlife lic comment period regarding mountain lion hunting Department rejected the petition, the department did for the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) in 2022. We recommended that the department extend create a committee to review mountain lion managetheir summer season closure to reduce kitten orphan- ment. Our staff and volunteers will remain active in monitoring the effort. ing, reduce their hunting limits, require a mandatory hunter education course for mountain lion sex identiFLORIDA fication, and end their pursuit-only season. Since the AGFD did not incorporate these recommendations, we In 2022, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and United States Forest Service anwill continue advocating for more responsible management, and for commissioners who will focus on the nounced that panther FP260 would be removed from the wild after killing livestock. We urged them to leave needs of wildlife and Arizona’s wilderness. the panther in its habitat. Their plans were halted and FP260 has remained in the wild.■ WYOMING In 2022, the Mountain Lion Foundation weighed in during the public comment period for the mountain lion management cycle to encourage the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to establish management success metrics outside of SEE MORE ONLINE→ hunting, reduce the hunting season length, prioritize population stability, and address conflict FOR ADDITIONAL UPDATES AND BACKGROUND, VISIT MOUNTAINLION.ORG/STATE with lions using non-lethal techniques.

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🎟ATTEND A WEBINAR

Our Living with Lions webinars invite people across the country to learn about lions. Register at lnk.bio/mountainlion.

HOPE FOR FLORIDA’S PANTHERS by Paige Munson, State Policy Associate In southern Florida, an isolated panther population lives far removed from most of the mountain lions for which we advocate. Roads have kept these panthers from expanding into more of their historic range on the eastern coast, but there is hope for these cats to recolonize again.

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Southeast Region

The Florida Wildlife Corridor Act that passed in 2021 with bipartisan support aims to establish a route for the cats in south Florida all the way to the Georgia border, where the Florida panther may become the eastern cougar once again. This act will include 18 million acres of protected land for wildlife to move through the highly developed state of Florida.■