"Go Big or Go Extinct,"
July 14 Opinion
Dr. Sam Zeveloff's diatribe of doom and gloom about cougars has no substance and is blatantly false. Prior to 1971, cougars were classified as vermin without state regulation, protection or scientific management. In 1971, they were classified as protected with management policy established by the Utah Division of Wildlife.
Cougar numbers have increased over the past 50 years, as proven by consistent growth in the annual harvest numbers reported by the state—51 in 1972; 185 in 1981; 265 in 1991; 449 in 2001; 349 in 2011; and 549 in 2020.
Man can have—and has had—a positive impact on wildlife, through science-driven species and land management. Specifically in San Juan County, multi-use land management has led to increased wildlife numbers of mule deer, bighorn sheep, elk and pronghorn, which directly benefit cougars. Water and grazing have also been improved for the benefit of these wildlife species and cattle on public range. Again cougars benefit from multi-use land management.
State wildlife management agencies apply scientific strategies to ensure viable, healthy and balanced wildlife populations for all species. Dr. Zeveloff should research facts before he spins the false narrative that cougars or other species will be endangered if Bears Ears or other areas continue to have multi-use management, including scientific management of wildlife.
TROY RUSHTON
Riverton
Increase Connectivity of Wild Lands
In his guest editorial last week, Dr. Sam Zeveloff is right to argue that protecting large natural landscapes in the West is essential to prevent mass species extinction, especially in the face of climate change.
That's exactly why the America's Red Rock Wilderness Act is so important. It would protect a huge swath of wild land—8.5 million acres of federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
But Zeveloff is correct that this is not enough to avoid species extinction. Critically, the Red Rocks Act would increase landscape connectivity in the region, which is absolutely essential to sustaining biodiversity.
The lands in the America's Red Rock Wilderness Act are located in a chain of largely natural landscapes that stretch from northern Mexico to the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic, known as the Western Wildway or Spine of the Continent. The problem is that the protected areas in the Wildway exist largely as isolated fragments, surrounded by human development. What we need to do is not only protect more land, but also increase connectivity between protected landscapes.
The America's Red Rock Wilderness Act would help fill in the gap between existing protected landscapes in the Western Wildway. And it would protect crucial stretches of five major wildlife migration corridors that are essential to facilitating wildlife movement between ecosystems all along the Western Wildway.
These corridors facilitate wildlife movement between places like Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, Greater Canyonlands and Grand Teton and Rock Mountain national parks. Elk, deer, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, black bear, mountain lion and wolves use these corridors and would benefit.
By protecting lands in the America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, we move toward the vision that Sam Zeveloff so rightly advocates for.
TERRI MARTIN
Salt Lake City
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