Over the next year, officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) will review the status of mountain lion populations on the Central Coast and farther south to decide whether the animals should be protected under the California Endangered Species Act.
This move started in June 2019 when the Center for Biological Diversity and the Mountain Lion Foundation submitted a petition to the CDFW to list six populations of mountain lions as threatened or endangered. In the petition, the groups outlined numerous threats to these populations, while highlighting development as the key factor.
“While the Southern California and Central Coast mountain lions face a multitude of threats, the greatest challenges stem from habitat loss and fragmentation and the consequent impact on their genetic health,” the petition states.
According to the petition, the Central Coast population, which stretches between Monterey and Santa Barbara counties has a healthier population than other areas. The petition states there are between 113 and 226 mountain lions in this population, while some groups farther south are in the single or double digits. However, in the petition, the organizations argue that high rates of development and habitat loss could lead to similar issues for mountain lions along the Central Coast, where population numbers are already lower than other parts of the state.
Los Padres ForestWatch Conservation Director Bryant Baker told the Sun that looking further ahead could help populations in years to come. His organization supports providing additional protection for these populations.
“Just because areas are rural now doesn’t mean they will be in the future,” Baker said. “That’s one of the really important aspects of doing something like this is it’s really forward thinking.”
The CDFW reviewed this petition and presented its findings to the California Fish and Game Commission during its April 16 meeting. The commission agreed that further analysis on these mountain lion populations is warranted and unanimously decided CDFW should review the issue in depth.
In an email, Jordan Traverso, deputy director for the CDFW Office of Communications, Education, and Outreach told the Sun that after this year-long review process, the CDFW will present its findings to the commission, which will then decide whether to add the mountain lions to the state’s list of threatened or endangered species.
“Endangered status means the population is worse off than threatened,” Traverso said. “Threatened is a step toward endangered status.”
Either status would require development plans to take mountain lions into account, which the California Building Industry Association has pushed back on. Another aspect that’s received opposition is how this potential new listing would change a rancher’s ability to obtain a depredation permit.
A statewide proposition voters approved in 1990 banned the hunting of mountain lions. Under this proposition, mountain lions can only be killed if the state issues a depredation permit for a mountain lion that’s killed livestock or pets. The lions can also be killed to preserve public safety or to protect bighorn sheep.
During the public comment period of the commission meeting, Sunshine Saldivar, a representative for the California Farm Bureau Federation, said mountain lions are a significant threat to cattle and that losing livestock is extremely costly for ranches that already operate on thin margins.
“Ultimately the [California Endangered Species Act] listing would jeopardize ranchers’ ability to protect their livestock and it would threaten the viability of ranches,” Saldivar said.
In an email, Traverso told the Sun that it’s yet to be determined how a potential threatened or endangered listing would affect ranchers’ ability to obtain these depredation permits. According to CDFW data, since 2001, state officials have issued 54 of these permits in Santa Barbara County and 159 in San Luis Obispo County, although not all of these permits led to lions being killed.
In a statement to the Sun, SLO County Farm Bureau Executive Director Brent Burchett said that he hopes the state provides some clarity on how any new listing could affect this depredation permit process.
“No one wants to see these animals killed, and we know the important role mountain lions play in our Central Coast ecosystem,” Burchett said. “But for a family cattle ranch, even the loss of a few head of cattle from predation has a serious financial impact.”
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 7, 2020.