Gulo,
Washington, 28 years ago the voters by Initiative banned hound hunting cats. That is about how long cougar take to completely devastate the wildlife. The west side of the Olympic Peninsula used to be heaven for elk hunters. I just spent 10 days after them and never saw an elk. 7 of those days I never saw even an old track. The woods used to have nice elk trails to walk around on and you could see a long way in the timber. Now the brush is over your head everywhere and if you hit a place where you can see 40 feet you think you've found an open area. Every year for quite a while I have been saying it can't get any worse and the next year it does. Everything is gone, beaver, deer, elk even coyotes are rare. I lobbied for making trapping a legal method of take for cougar and I got a look like I had spit on their shoe. Waste of time now with the F&W Commission we have. You know I mainly trap civet cats. That is about all I have left. Believe it or not I have to buy beaver carcasses from around Seattle for bait. Used to take 100+ every year. This country is ruined. Colorado dodged a bullet!
Sorry but any talk of cougars triggers me.

We were allowed to trap lions , then it was made illegal a few years ago. I live and trap close to the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, I caught several lions all on one ranch that is a sunday walk for a lion to the Reservation. Now the Mule deer population is crashing , wildlife doesn't live in a vacuum, I am thankful that Colorado will still manage their lions, their wolves are coming here and that will be a real game changer for all these sleeping DemorcRats!