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Utah wildlife division outlines 3-year cougar study as public speakers sharply divided
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Summary
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources described a three-year, six-unit study to test whether reducing cougar numbers raises mule deer survival; scientists and livestock interests backed data-driven evaluation while conservation groups and houndsmen warned lethal removals and snares risk long-term harm and social conflict. The board heard hours of public comment but took no immediate policy vote on the study.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources on Thursday detailed a three-year study that will evaluate whether reducing mountain lion (cougar) numbers on six management units leads to measurable increases in mule deer survival.
Director Peck introduced the study plan as a response to legislative direction and increased public concern about deer declines. Kent Hersey, big-game projects coordinator, told the board the division will collar adults and fawns on six units (Boulder, Monroe, Stansbury, Pine Valley, Wasatch East and Zion), aiming for roughly 50 adult collars and 30 fawn collars per unit. Hersey said the division will monitor body condition, cause-specific mortality and population growth (lambda) and pair DWR field work with BYU for peer review and publication.
Hersey outlined the analytical rationale: "Average fat level coming into Utah in December is 9%" and, using long-term monitoring, indicated an inflection of concern when cougar-caused adult mortality reaches roughly 7–8 percent; the study will test whether reducing that source of mortality increases deer survival and population growth.
Division staff said removals will rely on trapping, snares and continued public hunting — not poisons — and that BYU researchers will lead analysis. The division emphasized the work will be public, peer reviewed, and intended to inform future management decisions rather than pre-commit the board to statewide policy changes.
The hearing drew extensive public comment from conservation groups, livestock producers, houndsmen and hunters. Anna Wright of Utah Mountain Lion Conservation urged the board to "pause this program, acknowledge the existing body of science, and redirect efforts toward habitat-focused solutions," arguing that past removal studies across the West produced only short-term, localized increases and long-term instability. Sunday Hunt of Humane organizations said "predator control does not work" and criticized the study as cruel and poorly controlled given recent changes to statewide cougar hunting rules under HB 469.
By contrast, speakers representing ranching and hunting interests — including Sierra Nelson of the Utah Wool Growers Association and several regional RAC members — supported the study as an opportunity to apply more precise, modern data to a long-standing management question. Several houndsmen and outfitters asked for operational transparency — for example, a trap-location "heat map" to avoid snares affecting dogs and public access.
Board members asked technical questions about sample size and detectability. Hersey defended the planned sample (50 adults per unit) as consistent with the division’s long-term survival-monitoring practice and said the study design includes before–after and replicated treatments to reduce the risk of single-unit anomalies.
No board policy motion to change management was made during the public comment period; the division said the study will continue and results will be presented to the board and published when available. The next procedural steps are continued field monitoring and scheduled reporting as the study proceeds.
