Last modified: Thursday, January 24, 2008 10:29 AM PST Injunction sought to stop cougar plan By WILLIAM McCALL Associated Press PORTLAND — The battle over cougar management in Oregon has moved to federal court with a lawsuit seeking an injunction against killing the big cats until a judge can settle the question of whether the state has properly followed federal rules. Goat Ranchers of Oregon and Ranchers for Rural Responsibility joined several wildlife protection groups to file the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court, arguing the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife violated the National Environmental Policy Act with its cougar management plan. The key, wildlife advocates say, is the plan allows the state cougar population to fall from more than 5,000 to 3,000 animals — a decline of 40 percent. ‘‘The cougar management plan which the federal government is helping implement is not targeting problem cougars — it indiscriminately targets up to 2,000 cougars,’’ said Brian Vincent of Big Wildlife, one of the conservation groups. Concerns about cougar hunting have been one of the hot topics before the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, which tentatively decided at a meeting earlier this month to adopt new rules governing the use of dogs to track and kill cougars as part of the management plan. Sport hunting for cougars and bears using dogs was banned by Oregon voters in 1994, but the state is allowed to use dogs when necessary to control cougars. The new rules were required under a law passed by the 2007 Legislature to clarify the state’s authority to designate volunteer hunters as state agents under the management plan. The federal lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges the state plan. It names David E. Williams, state director of Oregon Wildlife Services, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The complaint argues that Williams should have used a tougher standard to assess the potential impact of the cougar plan, saying the cumulative effect ‘‘may be significant, especially when combined with the effects of other county, state and federal culling and hunting activities.’’ Williams said Wednesday he could not go into detail about pending litigation. But he said his agency followed the National Environmental Policy Act at the request of Oregon wildlife officials, seeking public comment and analyzing the issues in a formal ‘‘environmental assessment’’ as required by federal law. ‘‘What I can say is that we did go through the very public process,’’ Williams said. Ron Anglin, chief of the ODFW Wildlife Division, also said he could not comment on the lawsuit itself. But many of the issues raised, he said, have been the subject of debate and public comment ever since the 1994 ban. Anglin, like Williams, emphasized the minimum population of 3,000 cougars is simply the level set as a ‘‘safety net’’ and there is no plan to kill cougars until that level is reached — as conservation groups have suggested. The goal is simply to have the flexibility to deal with cougar damage to livestock, human safety complaints and interactions with other big game species, he said. ‘‘If we can do all that with 5,000 cats, that’s wonderful,’’ Anglin said. ‘‘But if it drops down below 3,000 we stop all hunting. The 3,000 number in effect becomes the population reservoir for cougars and we don’t ever want to drop below that.’’ Wildlife advocates, however, claim the science used to determine the cougar population is flawed and state officials can never be certain about the actual number of big cats in the state. ‘‘The state is using junk science,’’ said Vincent, of Big Wildlife. Anglin said the best researchers can do with an animal as elusive as the cougar is provide an estimate based on population models. But he said extensive comparisons of models from other states and using the most conservative numbers possible when guessing about factors such as cougar birth rates push the figures toward an underestimate — rather than an overestimate — in Oregon. Anglin also noted the estimates serve as a guideline, and that the cougar management plan will be adapted and modified according to additional research and figures.