Editorial: Agency has lion’s heart

Wednesday, April 19, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

Despite concerns raised by environmental groups and the National Park Service, Arizona state wildlife officials this week will begin using hired hunters to eradicate mountain lions suspected of preying on a dwindling herd of bighorn near the Arizona-Nevada border. But the hunters won't be allowed on federal land.

According to a story in Tuesday's Las Vegas Sun, an official with the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the agency has no other choice but to thin the lion population in the Black Mountain region, which extends roughly from Lake Mead to Interstate 40 south of Kingman, Ariz.

Arizona wildlife officials told Sun reporter Launce Rake that about 15 of the big cats are living in a region that would more appropriately support three to five lions. They suspect the lions, also called cougars or puma, are responsible for thinning the area's herd of bighorn. That herd, Arizona officials have said, is an integral part of the plan to repopulate the Intermountain West's bighorns.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group, called the hunt a shortsighted solution to the long-term problem of failing to protect critical wildlife habitat from encroaching development.

About a third of the targeted Black Mountain region encompasses an estimated 230 square miles inside the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an activist group, criticized Arizona's plan to hunt on federal land without an environmental assessment, which would include a public hearing.

Park Service officials heeded that call and have prohibited hunting the lions on the federal recreation area's land until the agency conducts public hearings to determine whether a hunt is the proper course of action. Park Service officials have shown leadership and a desire to find a long-term solution to responsibly managing these two species, both of which are invaluable.