In a move that is raising the ire of wildlife advocates, one of the Bay Area’s largest open space agencies is drawing up plans that could allow the killing of mountain lions and coyotes to protect cattle owned by ranchers who lease its lands.
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, a government agency based in Los Altos and funded by property taxes, owns 65,000 acres — an area twice the size of San Francisco — across San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
A decade ago, the district, created by voters in 1972 to preserve wildlife, protect open space and provide public recreation, began leasing some of its property to cattle ranchers.
Now many of the ranchers and their supporters say that mountain lions and coyotes are killing their livestock. They want the district to reduce the number of predators. The district has drawn up a draft policy
that would allow coyotes to be killed after they kill two calves or
other livestock, and mountain lions to be killed after they kill three
calves or other livestock. The “lethal take” could happen only after the
rancher had tried other methods to deter the predators, such as
fencing, guard dogs or lights. But wildlife advocates say the proposed policy, which would be the first of its kind among any local parks or open space district in the Bay Area, is misguided.
“Mountain lions should take precedence over livestock,” said J.P. Rose, an attorney with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. “These lands were bought for conservation, and killing lions to benefit private livestock operators is antithetical to that purpose.”But officials at the Midpeninsula district say grazing is an important tool to reduce fire risk by keeping grass and vegetation in check. They also say it helps support agriculture — a politically influential constituency in rural Santa Clara and San Mateo counties...MORE
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