Los Angeles like the entire USA once housed an impressive Prairie natural system that was "veined" by the ebb and flow of the Los Angeles River.........Pronghorn, Grizzly Bears, Pumas and Wolves headlined this vibrant biome.....................Among the best descriptions of "virgin" Los Angeles are two early Spanish visitors to the region.................: Pedro Fages, a soldier who explored the area in 1775; and Pedro Font, a missionary who accompanied Juan Bautista de Anza during his 1775-76 expedition through California...... Font entered the San Gabriel Valley on January 3, 1776, describing the plain as "a country very level on all sides; we found it very green in spots, and the blossoms already bursting forth".................. Fifty-six years later, the early Anglo settler Hugo Reid described the animal life beneath the grasslands............: "Squirrels, rabbits, and gophers were continually scurrying down into their holes, out of harm's way"..............Los Angeles ceased to be a natural prairie system at the dawn of the 20th century when in 1897 the last Grizzly Bear was hunted to extinction

Nathan Masters

WILD L.A., THE LAND THAT ONCE WAS

A mountain lion killed by an automobile in Pacific Palisades, 1928. Courtesy of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society Collection, Santa Monica Public Library.

A series of recent news headlines have reminded us that our city—often associated with brown skies, high-speed pavement, and its concrete river—still maintains an intimate relationship with nature.

Throughout the summer, spooked residents of Burbank and Glendale reported at least five mountain lion sightings. "I have a 4-year-old daughter and 10-year-old girl," one man told theLos Angeles Times. "I am just seriously scared." Then, on August 30, a cougar sprinting across the 405 freeway in the Santa Monica 

Prior to Spanish colonization, the vast Los Angeles Basin and the nearby inland valleys hosted an expansive prairie ecosystem.

Grasses and wildflowers covered much of the land, interrupted by sycamore-lined arroyos and streams. One of the watercourses, the Los Angeles River, had an outsize influence on the landscape. Issuing from the vast subterranean reservoir of the San Fernando Valley, the river flowed year-round into coastal marshes. Never a broad, placid river like those of the eastern United States, the Los Angeles River's flow often slowed to a trickle. Exceptionally heavy rains, though, would transform the tame river into a raging torrent that could not be trusted to keep to its channel.

In fact, for some time the river did not flow toward its current mouth on San Pedro Bay; instead, it turned west toward Santa Monica Bay after passing what is today downtown Los Angeles. In 1815, the river overflowed its banks and began carving a shortcut to the sea, bringing the river uncomfortably close to the still-fledgling Los Angeles pueblo. The town was forced to abandon its original plaza and construct a new one on higher ground.

Ten years later, the storm-swollen river burst through its banks again, this time sculpting an entirely new channel that headed directly south toward San Pedro Bay, the present location of the river's mouth. Ballona Creek, which today empties into the Pacific Ocean just south of Marina Del Rey, is a remnant of the Los Angeles River's former path.

In 1886, the river washed out the adjacent tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad. The Downey Avenue Bridge, visible in the background, was also destroyed. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.

A swollen Los Angeles River rushes through Compton, 1926. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library Photography Collection.

A tamer Los Angeles River flows through the Elysian Valley, circa 1895-1915. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.

On the drier grasslands not flooded by the river's flow, herds of pronghorn antelope roamed freely, and holes made by the prairie's many rodent species pockmarked the ground. Condors, eagles, and other birds of prey soared above, sharing the sky with a diverse group of larks, sparrows, and plovers.

At the apex of the food chain stood California's eventual symbolic state animal, the grizzly bear. Unlike the more docile American black bear, the larger grizzly thrived in the flat, open savannas and grasslands of Southern California. Omnivorous, they were especially adept at digging through the ground in search of gophers, weasels, and other subterranean rodents. Grizzlies were so important to the local environment that, until recently, ecologists referred to the dominant Southern California biome as the Broad Sclerophyll-Grizzly Bear Community.

Humans also inhabited the land, of course. The Tongva Indians had occupied the Los Angeles Basin and its adjacent valleys for hundreds or even thousands of years. As the Militant Angeleno recently detailed in his blog's Native Week series, dozens of villages dotted the region, supporting a population of five to ten thousand. Although the Tongva did not inflict the kind of environmental trauma that our metropolis does today, they did shape the land over the centuries through brush-clearing fires, hunting, and intensive foraging.

Because the Tongva did not keep written records of their world, the observations of early European explorers and settlers, carefully preserved in libraries and archives, have been an invaluable resource to ecologists like Paula Schiffman who have reconstructed L.A.'s lost landscape. Among the best sources are two early Spanish visitors to the region: Pedro Fages, a soldier who explored the area in 1775; and Pedro Font, a missionary who accompanied Juan Bautista de Anza during his 1775-76 expedition through California.

Font entered the San Gabriel Valley on January 3, 1776, describing the plain as "a country very level on all sides; we found it very green in spots, and the blossoms already bursting forth." Two days later, he made a salad out of a plants he found growing naturally near a spring, one of which he described as celery and the others as "passably good little lettuces."

The next month, Anza's and Font's expedition crossed the Los Angeles River, then known as the Porciuncula: "We crossed the...river, which carries a good amount of water and runs toward the San Pedro bight and spreads out and loses itself upon the plains shortly before reaching the sea. The land was very green and flowery and the route had a few hills and a great deal of miry grounds created by the rains."

Fifty-six years later, the early Anglo settler Hugo Reid described the animal life beneath the grasslands:

Squirrels, rabbits, and gophers were continually scurrying down into their holes, out of harm's way. Indeed, these tiny animals had so honeycombed the surface of the ground as to make it dangerous to ride anywhere off the roadway faster than at a walk. The caravan stretched out in a thin line along a road the surface of which seemed no smoother than the open field. Only in this way was it possible to avoid stumbling, dropping a load, and perhaps breaking a leg.

Only the earliest visitors to the region witnessed L.A.'s indigenous prairie, which was destroyed long before parking lots and subdivisions replaced the region's wild flatlands. As the presence of Europeans grew, invasive Mediterranean species—transported accidentally or intentionally from the Old World—began to supplant the native flora. Horses and longhorn cattle, introduced by Spanish missionaries and allowed to graze freely over the valleys and coastal plain, disrupted the careful balance of the ecosystem. The final end of the prairie could perhaps be dated to the disappearance of its keystone species, the grizzly bear, which Angelenos hunted to local extinction in 1897.

Caballeros roping a grizzly bear. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library Photograph Collection.

Our city's native landscape may be lost today, but reminders of the city's ecological history abound.

Many of the flora and fauna of the Los Angeles prairie have vanished, but some of Southern California's indigenous wildlife have adapted to the new urban ecosystem. Raccoons, skunks, and a host of bird species—joined by non-native species such as rats, eastern fox squirrels, and opossums—have moved from the neighboring chaparral communities of the hillsides into the artificial urban woodland of our modern metropolis.

Although straitjacketed in concrete for much of its route, the Los Angeles River still traces its post-1825 course to San Pedro Bay, its flow augmented by urban runoff. In some segments, pressure from upwelling water made it impossible to pave the river completely; in the Glendale Narrows, for example, cottonwoods spring up from the river's earthen bottom.

Natural history is also embedded in some of our city's place names. Downtown's Aliso Street refers to an ancient, 60-foot-tall sycamore, named El Aliso by early Spanish settlers, where the region's Tongva tribal leaders would once congregate. La Cienega Boulevard recalls the marshes (ciénagas in Spanish) where, as Font saw, the Los Angeles River lost itself before reaching the ocean.

Many of the archives who contributed the above images are members ofL.A. as Subject, an association of more than 230 libraries, museums, official archives, personal collections, and other institutions. Hosted by the USC Libraries, L.A. as Subject is dedicated to preserving and telling the sometimes-hidden stories and histories of the Los Angeles region. Our posts here will provide a view into the archives of individuals and cultural institutions whose collections inform the great narrative—in all its complex facets—of Southern California.

I am sure noted environmental writer and longtime Yaak, Montana resident Rick Bass is cheering on the WESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER in the suit they have filed against the US Forest Service.............The USFS. plans to extensively clear cut large sections of the Kootenai National Forest,,,,,,,a critical cross-border(Canada) biome that is still home to a handful of Grizzly Bears and Lynx...............Our own Federal biologists have acknowledged that clearcutting of the kind planned here will displace and harm Grizzlies over the decade ahead.......................We hope that Mr. Bass will put his gifted "pen to work in helping the Law Center defeat this ill-advised logging plan

Conservationists File Lawsuit to Protect Rare Species from Going Extinct in Kootenai National Forest

enewspf.com

Missoula, MT  Located in the far Northwest corner of Montana, the Cabinet-Yaak region of the Kootenai National Forest provides essential habitat for imperiled grizzly bears and critical habitat for Canada lynx, two species protected under the Endangered Species Act as threatened with extinction.

On Tuesday, the Western Environmental Law Center, representing the Alliance for Wild Rockies, filed suit in Federal District Court (Missoula, Montana) to protect these species from the U.S. Forest Service's unlawful plan for massive clearcutting and roadwork in this biologically rich area.

"Young Dodge" logging project includes: (1) 2,492 acres of logging (including clearcuts that are nearly 400 acres in size); (2) 3,986 acres of prescribed burning; (3) 97.3 miles of new road maintenance and improvement and the addition of 8.85 miles of roads added to the transportation system; (4) three forest plan amendments to allow for large clearcuts; and (5) logging in old growth stands over a 10-year period.

1.  Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem, home to the most endangered population of grizzly bears in the contiguous U.S. Only 45 bears remain of this distinct population, which is currently being considered for a separate listing as an endangered species.

According to the government's own biologists, the massive clearcuts and roadwork planned for the project would likely displace and harm grizzlies for nearly 10 years.

"Grizzly numbers in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem continue to decline every year," said Mike Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.  "In spite of these falling grizzly bear numbers the Forest Service plans to commercially log thousands of acres, open up roads, and use low-level helicopter flights in occupied grizzly habitat.  It's well-known science that low-level overflights by helicopters 'harm and harass' grizzly bears in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Even though we cited the law, judicial opinions, and the agency's own policies that ban such activities, the Forest Service refused to listen. So now we're compelled to go to court."

"We haven't seen an industrial logging project like this in years and never one in occupied, critical habitat for lynx," said Matthew Bishop, attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center. "It's important that we hold the Forest Service accountable. Our environmental laws embody our values and priorities as a Nation and ensure important habitat for imperiled species like grizzlies and lynx is protected. Unless these laws are enforced, they're meaningless," added Bishop.

The complaint can be found here: http://www.westernlaw.org/sites/default/files/Doc.%201%20(cmplt).pdf

Source: Western Environmental Law Center

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rick Bass, a Texas native, lived in Arkansas and Mississippi before moving to northwest Montana’s Yaak Valley, where he lives with his wife and daughters.

 A former petroleum geologist and wildlife biologist, he is the author of seventeen books, including a short story collection, The Hermit’s Story; a memoir, Why I Came West; and the novel All the Land to Hold Us (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013).

 An active environmentalist, Bass is a member of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, working to protect as wilderness the last roadless lands in the Yaak Valley. 

In addition to hypothesized theories involving global warming and non native viruses as reasons for amphibian decline across the planet, it is now found that the non native(to the USA) European Buckthorn plant now found across the Eastern and Midwestern USA gives off the chemical Emodin which seeps into frog breeding pools and kills them.................Somehow, the chemical interferes with frog and salamander embryos, preventing hatching................Readers of this blog, you are urged to use only plants native to your part of the world in your gardens..................Too many exotics ripping deep fissures in our natural fissures both here and abroad

Midwestern Frogs Decline, Mammal Populations Altered by Invasive Plant, Studies Reveal

sciencedaily.com — Researchers at Lincoln Park Zoo and Northern Illinois University have discovered a new culprit contributing to amphibian decline and altered mammal distribution throughout the Midwest region -- the invasive plant European buckthorn. This non-native shrub, which has invaded two-thirds of the United States, has long been known to negatively impact plant community composition and forest structure, but these two innovative studies slated to publish in upcoming editions of the Journal of Herpetology and Natural Areas Journal 

demonstrate how this shrub negatively impacts native amphibians and affects habitat use by mammals including increased prevalence of coyotes and other carnivores.

Amphibians are facing an extinction crisis worldwide, with 165 species likely having gone

 extinct in recent years according to the Amphibian Ark, a coalition of conservationists

 devoted to seeking solutions to the decline. Lincoln Park Zoo Reintroduction Biologist Allison

 Sacerdote-Velat, Ph.D. and Northern Illinois University Professor of Biological Sciences 

Richard King have identified European buckthorn as a contributor to amphibian decline in the

 Chicagoland area.

 The plant releases the chemical compound emodin, which is produced in

 the leaves, fruit, bark and roots of the plant, into the amphibian breeding pond environment 

at various times of year. Sacerdote-Velat and King's research has found that emodin is toxic

 to amphibian embryos, disrupting their development, preventing hatching.

The Tennessee reintroduction of Black Bears that began 20 years ago with Bruins taken from The Smokey Mountains continues to be successful today with about 245 animals roaming the Big South Fork Recreational area..................Researchers feel that the reintroduction was successful in part because the releases took place in the winter using females and cubs that remained in their new home to form the reproductive core of a new population....................Previously, Bears moved from one location to another in the Summer months showed a tendency to roam far and wide and not establish core breeding grounds

DNA study showing bear population booming in Big South Fork

• Morgan Simmons;knoxvillenewssentinel.com

Biologists transport a sedated black bear from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for release in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in the mid-1990s. New population estimates of black bears on the Tennessee side of the Big South Fork and the adjoining area show the number of bears to be about 245 animals, virtually all descendants from the 14 adult female bears and 16 cubs relocated from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Joe Clark/Special to the News Sentinel)

New population estimates of black bears in and around the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area are shining a positive light on an experimental reintroduction that took place in the park almost 20 years ago.

During the mid-1900s, biologists with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the National Park Service and the University of Tennessee captured 14 adult female bears and 16 cubs from Great Smoky Mountains National Park and released them in the Big South Fork, where bears had been largely absent for almost a century because of habitat destruction and unregulated hunting.

Since then, black bears have become established in the Big South Fork area, but it wasn't until recently that biologists have been able to estimate the number of bears and determine whether the population comes from the reintroduction or from bears wandering in from southeastern Kentucky or southwestern Virginia.

In an undated photo, a biologist shows barbed wire with a black bear hair sample in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and adjoining counties. DNA extracted from hair samples was used to derive a bear population estimate of about 245 animals, virtually all descendants from the 14 adult female bears and 16 cubs transfered from the the Great Smoky Mountains National Park nearly twenty years ago. (Joe Clark/Special to the News Sentinel)

These days, instead of marking and recapturing bears, biologists collect hair samples on barbed wire and use the DNA information to track population changes over time. Using this method, they've calculated the number of bears on the Tennessee side of the Big South Fork and adjoining area to be about 245 animals. A separate study on the Kentucky side of the Big South Fork puts that population at about 40 animals.

What's more, genetic tests on the Kentucky hair samples traced almost all of those bears back to the 14 females and 16 cubs removed from their winter dens in the Smokies and released in the Big South Fork almost two decades ago.

Joe Clark, research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and an adjunct professor of wildlife at the University of Tennessee, said based on the Kentucky findings the bears on the Tennessee side of the Big South Fork are derived largely from the reintroduction, too.

"The population has grown by leaps and bounds," Clark said. "The sample doesn't represent all the bears, but it's the lion's share. There are more bears up there than we thought."

In addition to the Tennessee side of the Big South Fork, the study included Pickett State Park and Forest. While most of the 175,000-acre study area was on public land, nearby private properties were surveyed, too.

Clark said the reintroduction was successful in part because the releases took place in the winter using females and cubs that remained in their new home to form the reproductive core of a new population.

"We found that if we moved bears in the summer, even after keeping them in acclimation pens, they want to move on," Clark said.

Biologist Joe Clark works with a black bear that was sedated for transport from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for release in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in the mid-1990s. New population estimates of black bears on the Tennessee side of the Big South Fork and adjoining area show the number of bears to be about 245 animals, virtually all descendants from the 14 adult female bears and 16 cubs captured in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Joe Clark/Special to the News Sentinel)

Hunting is legal in the Big South Fork, but the park does not permit bear hunting. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which regulates hunting in the park, says it will be at least three years until it decides whether the Big South Fork has a huntable bear population.

"It's just too early to tell," said Dan Gibbs, TWRA wildlife biologist. "And whatever happens, it would be up to the Big South Fork to decide whether they want to participate."

The population studies on the Tennessee side of the Big South Fork prove that the bears have found the habitat to their liking. With thousands of acres of public land nearby, biologist say the Big South Fork population could be ground zero for the natural dispersal of bears across Tennessee's northern Cumberland Plateau.

Tom Blount, chief of resource management for the Big South Fork, said the park installed bear-proof garbage cans and food storage lockers at campgrounds years ago to prevent the Big South Fork bears from becoming habituated to people.

"Our focus is to work closely with TWRA to assure the bear population is managed in a sustainable way," Blount said. "It's good when science actually helps identify what's out there so our managers know how to proceed."

The U.S. Forest Service is being forced back to the drawing board to revise 11 National Forest Plans to optimize habitat for Lynx

Judge Orders Forest Service into Lynx Consultation for Idaho, 2 other States

 Associated Press;magicvalley.com

BILLINGS, Mont. — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to consult with wildlife officials to ensure the agency takes adequate measures to protect Canada lynx in portions of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen said in Thursday's order that the Forest Service violated federal regulations by not revising its management plans for 11 national forests to take lynx habitat into consideration.

Canada lynx are a threatened species believed to number in the hundreds in the continental U.S.

In 2009, the Forest Service designated 39,000 square miles across the U.S. as critical habitat for the rarely seen predator, which is roughly the size of a bobcat and feeds primarily on snowshoe hares.

Critical habitat designations can determine what activities are allowed on forest land.

Plaintiffs from the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center said Christensen's ruling will ensure adequate plans are in place to protect lynx across 10 million acres.

Forest Service spokesman Phil Sammon says agency attorneys are reviewing the ruling to determine the scope of its impact.

The government is being sued separately to come up with a recovery plan for lynx, which were listed as threatened in 2000.

NBC's THE TODAY SHOW will feature Yellowstone's Wolf Project Leader, Dr. Doug Smith this coming Tuesday, May 21.........Tune in from 7-9am(est)!

Hi Rick -

I'm not sure if this is something you routinely include but I thought you might want to alert your "Wolves, Cougars, Coyotes Forever" followers that on May 21, the Today Show will broadcast from Yellowstone National Park (http://www.yellowstonegate.com/2013/05/viewers-make-suggestions-for-today-show-visit-yellowstone-park/), and Dr. Doug Smith (Yellowstone Wolf Project) will be interviewed. 

Sincerely,
Shannon

Shannon Barber-Meyer, PhD

USGS Wolf and Deer Project

1393 Hwy 169

Ely, MN 55731 

In Pre-Colonial times, it is thought that as many as 12,000 Black Bears occupied Florida,,,,,,,,,,,Just like with Florida Pumas, the sugarcane and human explosion in modern times virtually wiped out the Bears here.................Little by little, the Bears "clawing" their way back.................Still too soon(in my opinion) for Wildlife Officials to allow a hunt in the Sunshine State........As in every one of our 50 states, we have to find the financing to create as many wildlife highway crossings as possible if we expect further population expansions

Florida Black Bear, Ursus americanus floridanus

The Florida black bear (Ursus americanus floridanus) is a subspecies of the American black bear. It once held a range that included Florida and southern areas of Georgia and Alabama. Today it occurs in these areas and in southern Mississippi, but its range is now fragmented. This species prefers a habitat within forested areas like sand-pine scrub, wetlands, oak scrub, and upland hardwood forests. This is the only species of bear to prefer a subtropical habitat.

The Florida black bear varies in size depending upon the sex. Males can reach an average weight of 300 pounds, although some individuals have been recorded at 500 pounds, while females can weigh around 198 pounds. The average body length for both males and females ranges between four and six feet. The fur is typically black in color, while the muzzle is typically light brown or cream in color. Some individuals have a white patch of fur on the chest, but this is not common. Although the Florida black bear is solitary, it does not appear to be territorial over its home ranges. This species will gather in small groups or pairs during the breeding season.

The Florida black bear is threatened by habitat loss caused by deforestation for human development. This causes the bears to fall victim to traffic accidents, among other threats. There have been 1,356 recorded deaths of this species caused by motor vehicle accidents since 1976. In 2002, it was found that over 100 of these bears are killed each year, making roads the main threat to the species. However, this species has been protected by law since 1994 and occurs in many protected areas. It is thought that this bear is relatively safe from extinction, and in 2012, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) demoted it from a threatened species.

It is believed that at one time there were as many as 12,000 black bears living throughout Florida. Biologists aren't exactly sure how many black bears live in Florida today, but they estimate that only about 1,500-3,000 black bears remain. But black bears no longer roam throughout the entire state. There are just eight locations in Florida where black bears live freely, and only about 25 black bears are estimated to live in the Chassahowitzka area. Biologists believe the decline in Florida's black bear population is due to the destruction and development of bear habitats, combined with historic hunting pressure. In fact, bear biologists believe that a healthy bear population needs at least 400,000 acres of habitat land to survive! Increased land development and the destruction of bear habitats lead many bears to cross busy highways in search of living space and food. As a result many black bears are struck and killed by cars and trucks. In fact, automobiles are the No. 1 killer of Florida's black bears. But there's some hope for Florida's remaining black bears. Many people now realize the important role this mammal plays in Florida's ecosystems, and efforts are being made to protect more habitat for this endangered species.

It is one thing to consider a hunting and trapping season on Bobcats in Southern Iowa,,,,,,,,,,,,,It is quite another to allow an unlimited hunter kill................That is what the Iowa Dept. of Ntl Resources is considering------going from a management plan that has allowed hunters to kill 15% of the 3000 Bobcats in the state to allowing an unlimited removal of the "Bobs".............C'mon Iowa Game Commissioners,,,,,,,,,,,,,,It was not that long ago, that Bobcats were nearly a state extirpated species.............Show some restraint and continued responsible wildlife management

Hunters may get to bag bobcats

muscatinejou

muscatinejournal.com

 Local hunters may soon have the chance to hunt bobcats in Muscatine County.

According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the bobcat population has grown in Iowa to about 3,000. The DNR allowed hunters to trap 450 bobcats in the state during the 2012-13 season.

Now, because of the growing population, the DNR is proposing to open Muscatine and five other counties to bobcat hunting. The other counties are Audubon, Crawford, Dallas, Iowa and Poweshiek.

Muscatine County Conservation Officer Tom Campbell said the bobcat population isn't something the DNR has had a hand in; it's just been "a gradual move [by the bobcats] over the past couple years from Missouri and Nebraska."

Campbell said the bobcats were first spotted in southern Iowa before traveling north and throughout the state. "We first opened bobcat hunting to hunters in 2006 and that has continually expanded to include more [catches] throughout the state."

Campbell said bobcats can be seen almost anywhere in the county, but they're more commonly found in wooded areas.

"It's not unusual to see a bobcat in Muscatine [County] now," Campbell said.

DNR spokesperson Kevin Baskins said the proposed changes will be discussed at the next DNR commission meeting on Thursday, June 13. If the changes are accepted, the next hunting and trapping seasons would allow people to hunt or trap bobcats in Muscatine County. Another proposal would remove the hunting/trapping limit on bobcats, which currently stands at 450.

Baskins said the cats are harvested for their pelts and can trade anywhere from $50 to $250-300 depending on quality.

Campbell said if a person comes across a bobcat, "enjoy the sight but don't bother it." Baskins added that bobcats do not pose a threat to people.

"Spotting one is extremely rare unless you spend a lot of solitary time in the woods like some of the deer hunters," Baskins said. "They could pose a threat to smaller pets and livestock, [such as] chickens outside. Bobcats can prey on songbirds and other wildlife, but do not do nearly the amount of predator damage that feral house cats do."

He doesn't think the proposed changes would affect the population in Muscatine County. In fact, he anticipates the population will continue to grow.

"Our department has been conservative after opening [hunting and trapping] seasons in southern Iowa years ago," Campbell said. "The population has continued to expand and I don't see any reason for it to stop here."

So it is possible for hunters to step back from their quest for optimum #'s of deer, elk and Moose and recognize that it killing Wolves, Pumas and Bears is not the answer to that quest.............In fact, preserving large swaths of interconnected wild land will fulfill your goal of healthy prey species.............As Oregon businessman and hunter Steven Champan now states: "by targeting predators and not the true culprits — grazing and road building — is doing a disservice to the hunting community"

Predatory Nonprofit 

cscwild.org;Camilla Mortensen

Fight over cougars and finances

It all seemed so easy to businessman Steven Chapman — an avid hunter, he wanted to influence the Oregon Legislature on its hunting bills. The deer and elk herds in Oregon are too small, Chapman said, and wanted to do something about it. It takes millions of dollars in California to influence legislation, according to Chapman, but only thousands in Oregon. 

In only a few years, the lobbying group he helped form, Oregon Outdoor Council (OOC), shot from obscurity to a legislative force, but now Chapman finds himself pitted against fellow hunters as he alleges misspent money and ethical wrongdoings by the lobbying-oriented OOC and its non-lobbying partner, the Oregon Outdoor Council Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Chapman says he wants to expose OOC and OOCF because he feels that he created a "haphazard" group that isn't targeting the real source of problems for the animals he hunts.

Together with Pendleton-based media-group owner Jerod Broadfoot, Wayne Endicott of Springfield's Bow Rack and others, Chapman formed OOC with goals that included repealing Oregon's Measure 18, which keeps hunters from chasing cougars with dogs. OOC was also behind a push on Oregon House Bill 3437, which required that gubernatorial nominees to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission have held some form of fishing or hunting licenses for 10 consecutive years. This would leave nonhunters out of wildlife decisions.

Chapman, OOC and the long-established Oregon Hunters Association (OHA) all share similar goals — to improve the herds for hunters in Oregon — but Chapman says he is no longer 100 percent certain that targeting predators and pushing bills allowing hound hunting or bear baiting are the answer. The problem lies with lands lost to grazing and roads built for logging, he says, not cougars and wolves. That's not a popular stance to take among conservative hunting organizations that have long blamed and targeted predators.

But Chapman's stance on what could be reducing deer and elk herds isn't what has him at odds with the nonprofits that he was once part of. Chapman alleges that the OOC and the OOCF unethically misspent funds, misrepresented information and are not acting "in the best interests of hunting, angling or wildlife," and he lays out a litany of problems. 

Chapman says that OOC got $25,000 from the Oregon Hunters Association to conduct a poll in support of legislative initiatives and a potential constitutional amendment, and that part of the reason OOC got the money was because Broadfoot told the group and the OHA that $500,000 in donations would be coming in from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Safari Club International. That money never materialized. Chapman further alleges that Broadfoot misrepresented the results of the poll. Chapman says this damages OOC's credibility.

Chapman, who was the OOC's secretary-treasurer, also worries that the foundation, OOCF, jeopardized its nonprofit status when out of its $33,000 budget in 2012, it spent $16,000 on a poll relating to a prospective ballot initiative and legislative actions. The IRS limits small nonprofits to spending less than 20 percent of their budget on lobbying. 

Chapman also alleges that Broadfoot diverted nonprofit funds for personal use for himself and his wife on a trip to Las Vegas where they stayed in a luxury hotel, pointing to posts on the Broadfoot Media Group website. He had an accountant review the books, and the CPA wrote that "it appears that proper expense authorization and follow up procedures are not being followed carefully, if at all" and called some of the expenditures "highly questionable."

When asked for comment, Broadfoot referred EW to OOC's attorney Ross Day. Day is also Chapman's personal attorney, and when asked if that was a problem due to a conflict of interest, Day said,  "Not that I'm aware of." 

Chapman has contacted the Department of Justice over the money issue and says that in turn, OOC board members have sent a state police officer to Chapman's doorstep.

Day says the OOC board has concluded that Chapman's allegations are unfounded and that "We have a disagreement here, whether or not money was spent, I don't want to say wisely, but as efficiently as possible. It doesn't mean anything untoward has occurred."

But in a July 2012 email to the OOC board, Day wrote "when OOC pays for a trip to attend a conference, speaking engagement, whatever, the person can only be there on OOC business, not promoting any other organization/business/cause or otherwise. When money from a c(4) is spent, it can only be spent on purposes related to the c(4). If someone goes to a conference, for instance, on OOC's dime, and then promotes another organization (say, Oregonians In Action), there could be problems down the road with the IRS (which I, as OOC's lawyer, am responsible for avoiding)." 

Later in August, Day wrote, "It is my job to advise OOC on how to avoid enforcement actions by agencies like the IRS and the Oregon DOJ. The easiest and surest way to avoid enforcement actions is by making sure your books are clean to begin with; that way you do not have to agree to 'follow the law' if and when the government comes knocking at your door."

The July email from Day also detailed a report from former Republican state senator-turned NRA lobbyist Roger Beyer, who had been asked to join the OOC board but declined. Beyer discussed a "breakdown" in the relationship between OOC and OHA, citing among other things the claims of funding that didn't materialize and that the OHA was given only abstract data from the poll and not the actual poll results. Broadfoot had sent an email to the OOC board saying, "Do not share. We need to discuss this tonight. Numbers are not good overall but it does provide us with good information to move forward with."

Day says, "Taken out of context I know what that email looks like," but says OOC was under no obligation to release the results of the poll. Duane Dungannon of the OHA says that there were "differences of opinions about the results that were obtained" but that OHA thought it made sense that the poll results would be held close and not sent out to wind up in the hands of opponents or on websites.

But in the end, whether OOC survives and whether it works with OHA on future hunting legislation or not, Chapman says he feels culpable for having created an organization that by targeting predators and not the true culprits — grazing and road building — is doing a disservice to the hunting community.