{"id":2456104,"date":"2020-03-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=323054"},"modified":"2020-03-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T06:00:00","slug":"state-proposes-special-management-area-for-local-mountain-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/state-proposes-special-management-area-for-local-mountain-lions\/","title":{"rendered":"State proposes \u201cspecial management area\u201d for local mountain lions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A female lion is treed by hunters with hounds near Woody Creek, Colorado. Most lions in Colorado are hunted with hounds and treed, which presents challenges in areas with a lot of private land.<\/strong>
Elizabeth Stewart-Severy\/Aspen Journalism<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

In response to an increase in mountain lion sightings and conflicts in the Roaring Fork and Eagle river valleys, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials are proposing a \u201cspecial management area\u201d to give hunters more time and tools to kill mountain lions.<\/p>\n

CPW has proposed the Glenwood Special Management Area, where the agency will focus on suppressing the lion population. The Glenwood SMA encompasses most of the Roaring Fork River valley and portions of the Eagle River valley south of Interstate 70.<\/p>\n

In the proposed West Slope Mountain Lion Management Plan released this week, the agency says its current plan, which dates to 2004, has management areas that are too small to \u201cproperly manage solitary, low-density, wide-ranging carnivores like mountain lions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed plan expands the geographic boundaries of management areas, combining several current game units to better reflect the long distances that the big cats travel. It also aims to maintain a stable population and seeks to reduce the growing number of conflicts with humans, especially in the Roaring Fork and Eagle river valleys, where mountain lion sightings are on the rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cReports 10 years ago were occasional sightings, but sightings are the norm now,\u201d said CPW district wildlife manager Matt Yamashita. \u201cPets and livestock are being either injured or attacked on a fairly routine basis, and on the more serious side of things, we\u2019re getting reports of attacks on people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Near Loveland this month, a rabid mountain lion attacked a man and a sheriff\u2019s deputy. The most recent incident in the Roaring Fork area occurred in June 2016, when a 5-year-old boy in Woody Creek who was playing in his yard with his older brother was attacked by a small lion. The boys\u2019 mother pulled the lion off the younger boy, who survived. Lions involved in human attacks are killed by authorities.<\/p>\n

The updated plan comes on the heels of an expansion of mountain lion hunting near Aspen that the CPW Commission approved in January.<\/p>\n

Researchers say one reason for the increase in conflicts is that development in the Roaring Fork and Eagle river valleys overlaps with mule deer winter range.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere there\u2019s deer, there\u2019s lion,\u201d said Mat Alldredge, a CPW researcher who specializes in mountain lions and other carnivores. \u201cWhen we provide good cougar habitat and good prey habitat in urban areas, we are increasing the likelihood for human conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deer are attracted to irrigated landscaping, which draws deer and mountain lions close to residences and raises concerns about human safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve heard from everyone from sports persons to homeowners to schools, where they\u2019re not feeling comfortable,\u201d Yamashita said. \u201cMost of this area was rural or agricultural in nature, and it\u2019s not that way anymore and we\u2019re having to manage for wildlife species in these urbanized areas, which is a very, very difficult thing to try to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal would increase the number of mountain lions that can be killed in a hunting year in the Glenwood management area from 18 this season to 33 in the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n

Mountain lion season runs from mid-November through March, and hunters typically track the big cats through the snow with hunting dogs.<\/p>\n

Alldredge says increased hunting can, under certain circumstances, reduce interactions between humans and lions, but populated areas pose a unique challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of these areas with high human density are very, very difficult to hunt because most lion hunting is done with dogs, and you can\u2019t do that when there\u2019s a lot of private property,\u201d Alldredge said. \u201cThere\u2019s no real good evidence one way or another because you can\u2019t increase hunting pressure in a developed area.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the new plan aims to make hunting easier in the Glenwood management area. Hunters would be allowed to hunt during elk and deer rifle seasons in October and November (without the use of hounds) and during an additional April season. Also, hunters in the new area would be permitted to use electronic calls, which are illegal in all other hunting units in Colorado, to attract lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur management strategy is to manage for suppression,\u201d Yamashita said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to decrease the number of mountain lions that we are seeing or hearing from in these particular areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

CPW tries to maintain a stable mountain lion population across the Western Slope, but it\u2019s difficult to know exactly how many lions live in the region and throughout the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of the biology of lions \u2014 their low densities, secretive nature, wide-ranging (nature) \u2014 make them nearly impossible to enumerate on a statewide scale,\u201d said Mark Viera, who manages the carnivore program for CPW. \u201cWe estimate that we have 3,800 to 4,400 independent lions in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

CPW\u2019s proposed lion-management plan aims to keep the state\u2019s lion population stable and groups what are now 13 management units into two, larger regions. CPW says this better reflects how mountain lions move across the landscape.<\/p>\n

Under the new plan, the limit of mountain lions that hunters can kill in the state\u2019s northwest region \u2014 except in the Glenwood management area, where the limit has increased \u2014 will decrease from 284 lions this season to 276 in 2021-22.<\/p>\n

Historically, hunters have not reached the limits set by CPW in many of the hunting units. Since the plan allows more geographic flexibility, officials expect to see the harvest increase.<\/p>\n

The public can comment on the draft plan through April 12.<\/p>\n

Aspen Journalism collaborates with The Aspen Times on coverage of the environment. For more, go to aspenjournalism.org.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A female lion is treed by hunters with hounds near Woody Creek, Colorado. Most lions in Colorado are hunted with hounds and treed, which presents challenges in areas with a lot of private land.Elizabeth Stewart-Severy\/Aspen Journalism In response to an increase in mountain lion sightings and conflicts in the Roaring Fork and Eagle river valleys, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 08:52:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}