community
november2
2017
9
The Vernonia Library Hosted a Halloween Party on Saturday, October 28
Kids
watched a
short film
and made
play-doh
monsters,
treat bags
that were
filled up at
the end of
the event,
and spider
ornaments.
Superheroes, ghouls, and others took part in this year’s Graveyard Dash,
a walk/run from the Vernonia Memorial Cemetery to the Vernonia Pioneer Cemetery.
Results:
3K
1. Peter Hahn
12:21
2. Max Anderson
12:23
3. Sadie Gump
13:09
4. Delaney Draeger
14:00
6K
1. Jonathan Kintz
32:08
2. Ashley Perry
33:11
3. Kellie Murray
33:23
4. Samuel Potter
36:38
Photos courtesy
of Aaron Scovel
Cougar Population Growing in Mid-Coast Region
A few decades ago, cougars in the coast range
were practically unheard of. But as Oregon’s healthy
cougar population has expanded into northwest Oregon
from population strongholds in the Blue Mountains and
south Cascades, ODFW is observing more cougar har-
vest, sightings and damage complaints along the coast.
Researchers have studied cougar home range
sizes, population densities, and diet in the Cascades and
eastern Oregon, but not along the coast. A new study
aims to change that through a research effort that will
collar 10 adult cougars in the Alsea Wildlife Manage-
ment Unit, which includes parts of Lincoln and Benton
counties.
ODFW will work with volunteer agents who
have hounds to tree cougars in the study area so ODFW
can immobilize them, take samples including blood and
DNA, and get them fitted with a GPS collar. Location
data collected from the collars will be used to calculate
home range size and habitat selection.
Like similar research in other parts of the state,
the study will also use scat detection dogs to refine a
cougar population estimate for the unit and to analyze
their diet. The scat provides DNA data used in capture-
recapture models that estimate population size and den-
sity. The diet analysis provides important information
on what percent of common prey items (deer, elk or
small mammal) are making up area cougars’ diets.
Collaring of the cougars was started in October
and will continue until 10 adults are collared or April
1, 2019. Once a cougar is collared
the GPS unit will collect location
data for 17 months.
It is legal to harvest a col-
lared cougar but ODFW prefers
that hunters not shoot a cougar
with a collar if possible. Hunters
who do will need to contact ODFW
and return the collar so the data can
be retrieved and the collar reused,
plus complete the normal check-in
process that is required whenever
a hunter takes a cougar or bear in
Oregon.
“Better data means better
science based management deci-
sions, and this data will help refine our cougar popula-
tion estimates for this region,” says Jason Kirchner, dis-
trict wildlife biologist in Newport. “This research will
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help ODFW manage for a viable
population of cougars and assess
effects on their prey populations,
so we can improve management
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Oregon’s statewide cougar
population is estimated at 6,400.
The Alsea Unit is part of Zone A,
the Coast/North Cascades Zone,
which has an estimated popula-
tion of 950 cougars of all age
classes.
The research is being funded
through federal grants from the
Wildlife Restoration Act and donations from Oregon
Wildlife Foundation and the Oregon Hunters Associa-
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