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10 07 24 Retired CPW Wildlife Manager Lyle Sidener with support for Big Cat Hunting
What if there was a day when we could come together to give to the causes we're most passionate about? Great news! There is! December 10th is Colorado Gives Day, and it's easily the best day to give. All the causes you care about are in one place, so let's start a wave of generosity across the state. Join us in lifting up our local communities. Give now through December 10th at ColoradoGivesDay.org. ♪♪ Finding the right news podcast can feel like dating. It seems promising until you start listening. When you hit play on post reports, you'll get fascinating conversations, and sometimes a little fun, too. I'm Martine Powers. And I'm Ella Hezari. Martine and I are the hosts of post reports. The show comes out every weekday from the Washington Post. You can follow and listen to post reports wherever you get your podcasts. It'll be a match, I promise. ♪♪ It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The Roku Channel, your home for free and premium TV, is giving you access to holiday music and genre-based stations from iHeart all for free. Find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole Radio. The Roku Channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs, and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeartRadio on the Roku Channel. Happy streaming! Wildlife management, again on the ballot. This time, it's in the name of protecting large cats, like mountain lions and bobcats from being hunted. On the ballot, it'll be Proposition 127. If it passes by voters, it would ban the hunting of big cats in Colorado, where advocates say this would help return the balance of nature. On with this now, to speak from the position of the opposition, he's a former 30-year employee from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and with Colorado's Wildlife Deserves Better organization, it's Lyle Sidener. Lyle, we appreciate you coming on, and you have a unique perspective with this working for CPW. What does nature ecology and the data say about big cats and their important in the environment? Well, the big thing is that Colorado Parks and Wildlife has a long history of using science to professionally manage wildlife management. And this ballot initiative takes that away. It, much like we saw in 2020 with the wolves, it's on the ballot, and it referred to as ballot box biology, the voters taking that professional management away from the people that are hired to do that. Lyle, walk us through the current process of what it takes or what you can do when it comes to hunting bobcats and mountain lions in our state. The big thing to remember is that it's a very rigorous process, actually. Mountain lion hunting is probably the most restrictive of big game hunting activities. The hunter has to meet several benchmarks before they can go hunting. The first of which is that they have to pass a hunter education test, a class and test. If they were born after 1949, they must then take a mountain lion education and identification course and examine past with an 80% or higher score, purchase a mountain lion license, then they have to check the geographical area, the game management unit that they want to hunt daily to see if it's still open. When the harvest limit is met in a game management unit, that area is close to hunting, and they can't go one in that area. Once they're successful, if they harvest a lion, they must contact CPW within 48 hours and report that harvest and then present it within five days to be inspected so that CPW can collect data from it and put a seal on it that makes the lion legal. That's more than is required for any other big game species. Lyle, what is the current ecological balance with Bob Katz and with the mountain lions? Are we at a good balance or are you under over? With the information that's available, both populations are in a very good place. The CPW estimates the lion population to be about 4,000. That's 20 to 30 times more than when regulated sport hunting started on mountain lions in 1965. Bob Katz, throughout their range all across the United States, are believed to have a very healthy population, and that's the case in Colorado. Cats are very hard to estimate, but there's been more research done on mountain lions using radio tracking collars and then taking that science-based information that's gathered to estimate the population. But both populations are in a good place right now. Do you have an estimate of how many Bob Katz or mountain lions are usually hunted and killed per year in our state and what is the economic impact of that? The average over the last three years of harvest of mountain lions has been about 500. Each one of those represents that a license was purchased. In many cases, the hunters hire an outfitter or guide and pay them, so that's economically important to them. And then the rural areas of Colorado received that economic benefit as well as the hunters is in that area while he's hunting. The harvest of Bob Katz has been about 800. A lot more people participate in that recreationally across the state. Probably a lesser impact, I guess, per capita than lions, but it certainly is an economic impact. The other thing to realize is that money that goes to license purchases goes directly back to CPW and CPW is charged with using that money to manage those species. Are you concerned that mountain lions are an apex predator? Bob Katz are as well, but I know they hunt smaller gamers. Are you concerned that something like this could upset nature's balance to where they're not doing their job keeping elk herds and other animals, at least in check with their populations and keep that balance in nature? Well, there's a lot more that goes on than just the Bob Katz and lions. I mean, CPW also manages those big game animals. The management of Bob Katz and lions allows for that harvest. And it has, by the fact that the populations are healthy, they have no excuse me. They are doing very well. And so the argument is that the harvest is sustainable and can continue. Lyle and wrapping up with you, this is more philosophical than anything else, but you're an expert in the space with wildlife. Is this an example where decisions like this should be left to experts like yourself or people in that realm versus citizens in the metro area that maybe you don't have to deal with these issues? Absolutely. I mean, that's the biggest thing to take away from this. The CPW uses science to make these decisions. The proposal, as it's written, relies entirely upon emotion. With the latest on Proposition 127, the big cat hunting ban that will be before Colorado voters in November. It's a former 30-year employee for Colorado Parks and Wildlife with the Colorado Wildlife deserves a better program. It's Lyle Sidenar. On the opposite side, we'll hear from those that say yes on 127, that cats are not trophies coming up at 719. What if there was a day when we could come together to give to the causes we're most passionate about? Great news, there is. December 10th is Colorado Gives Day, and it's easily the best day to give. All the causes you care about are in one place, so let's start a wave of generosity across the state. Join us in lifting up our local communities. Give now through December 10th at ColoradoGivesDay.org. ♪ If you put aside 25 cents every week for a year, what could you get at the end? A few cups of coffee, maybe? A candle? Or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world. Go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long. Go to washingtonpost.com/bf24. It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The Roku Channel, your home for free and premium TV, is giving you access to holiday music and genre-based stations from iHeart all for free. Find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole Radio. The Roku Channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs, and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeart Radio on the Roku Channel. Happy streaming!