Mountain Lion quota reduced for Cortez area

Mountain Lion quota reduced for Cortez area

November 20, 2001

BY THE COLORADO DIVISION OF WILDLIFE

DENVER — The Colorado Wildlife Commission unanimously approved regulations prohibiting the stocking of trout and salmon that have been exposed to the whirling disease parasite in lakes and streams where trout can reproduce.

The regulations, which will not take effect until 2003, will prevent both the Division of Wildlife and private hatcheries from stocking positive fish in most lakes and streams west of Interstate 25. Exceptions to the policy will be granted only if an application is presented to the director of the DOW and meets specific criteria established in the regulations.

"These regulations are a real milestone in our efforts to reduce the impact of whirling disease in our lakes and streams," said Eddie Kochman, DOW’s aquatic wildlife manager. "This required the work and cooperation of many people and the support of the Colorado Wildlife Commission."

Kochman said the Colorado Fish Health Board, working closely with the Division’s aquatic staff, worked for nearly a year on the development of the regulations. "The work of the Fish Health Board and the Division’s aquatic staff has been exemplary," Kochman said.

Whirling disease is a parasitic infection of trout and salmon that originated in Europe and reached the eastern United States in the 1950s. The disease has since spread to trout and salmon in most western states. In Colorado, the parasite has dramatically reduced natural reproduction of rainbow trout in portions of the Colorado, Poudre, Gunnison, Rio Grande and South Platte rivers and in some smaller streams.

Brown trout, which are native to Europe, are able to resist the parasite and lake trout are largely immune to it. But cutthroat and brook trout are susceptible, including Colorado’s native cutthroat strains. DOW regulations already prohibit the stocking of trout and salmon exposed to whirling disease in or near native cutthroat populations, and those native populations have not been affected.

"The supply of negative trout is continuing to increase each year from our hatcheries," said Eric Hughes, the Division’s statewide hatchery manager. "We are also buying trout from private growers to provide angling recreation."

The DOW has an extensive hatchery improvement program under way that has already rid eight hatcheries of the parasite. Work is continuing at the Roaring Judy, Mount Shavano and Rifle Falls hatcheries and negative fish are expected from those facilities by 2003 or 2004.

The Commission also set the annual quota for the number of mountain lions that can be taken by hunters, reducing it by one to 790 for 2002. Two additional licenses were added for the North Park area. The quota in the Durango/Cortez area will be reduced by three next year.

Lion hunters in 10 units along the southern Front Range will be able to purchase two licenses and take two lions per year instead of the usual one. But the quota in those units will not change. Mountain lion hunters must call (888) 940-LION (5466) before each trip to any game management unit to make sure it is open. If the harvest quota has been reached, the unit is closed and hunters must pick a different unit.

DOW game managers recommend the lion quota each year for each game management unit where lion hunting is permitted. The quota is well above the actual number of lions killed by hunters. In 2000, 1,500 hunters killed 315 lions, only 40 percent of the quota.

The Commission also created a new opportunity for big game hunters to take coyotes while they are hunting any big game species without the small game license that is usually required. Big game hunters may only kill a coyote on their big game license until they fill that license.

The Colorado Mule Deer Association, a western Colorado hunting group, supported the regulation as a way to lower the coyote population. Members of the Mule Deer Association believe reducing the coyote population will reduce predation on deer, thus increasing deer numbers.

The 2002 spring and summer turkey regulations were also adopted, including a spring season that will run from April 14 through May 27 and a fall season that begins Sept. 1 and ends Oct. 7. The bag limit is one bearded - or male - turkey in the spring and one turkey of either sex in the fall, or two bearded turkeys in the spring, providing one is taken on a limited license east of Interstate 25.

The Commission also directed the division to continue to evaluate a proposal from the Colorado Hawking Club to take a small number of young peregrine falcons from nests each year so that club members can raise and fly the birds as part of the falconry hobby.

Peregrine falcons were once endangered, but an intensive state and federal recovery program and a federal ban on the use of the pesticide DDT in the United States has resulted in a successful recovery. Colorado raptor biologist Jerry Craig, one of the scientists responsible for the peregrine’s recovery, recommended against the take of peregrines by falconers. Craig said he wanted to continue the final two years of a monitoring program to assure peregrine recovery was continuing before any take from the wild should be considered.

Representatives of Colorado Audubon chapters strongly oppose the take of peregrines at this time. The commission will make a final decision at its January meeting