Oregon Cougar Action Team

Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you. Living fear free with Cougars.

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COME VISIT OREGON COUGAR ACTION TEAM MARCH 26TH, 27, AND 28TH AT THE BETTER LIVING SHOW.  ORECAT WILL BE RAFFLING OFF A HANDMADE NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE DONATED BY ONE OF OUR  SUPPORTERS, TIMBER FOX TRADERS!

 

 

 

OPERATION BUY BACK THEIR LIVES WITH A LICENSE TO PROTECT

 

 

 

Oregon Cougar Action Team has been blessed with some of the most forward thinking and compassionate members any organization could hope for.  Individuals with capacity to re-imagine Oregon as a State tolerant of all our once rich biodiversity, bestowing upon our Natural resources the dignity long overdue them in the hopes to revive our once abundant ecosystems.  I hold credit to the following program to the innovative and honest thinking of our OreCat members.  If you can hold the following vision in your heart and mind, please join us today.

 

Operation Buy Back Their Lives With A License To Protect is a program generated from the heart of OreCat members.  It is an innovate and forward thinking program that contributes not only to the reversal of our current planetary concerns, but contributes to healthy forests, clean air, and repaired watersheds. 

 

In Oregon today non-hunting individuals have no representation concerning our wildlife because there is no legal avenue open to influence the direction of policies taken by ODFW by paying them, as a hunter does, to manage uniquely for the interest of those who have paid ODFW to manage Oregon’s resources for their own desires.  If one individual can pay ODFW to kill wildlife, than another individual must have the right to pay ODFW to not kill wildlife.  Members of OreCat re-imagine Oregon ODFW respecting the rights of the none hunting individual who want to participate with the Natural resources that belong to all Oregonians, not an Oregon wildlife management program designed just on the whims of hunters.  With this plan an Oregonian would be able to buy a “license to protect” in order to create a balanced source of income from hunters and non-hunters.  The only element missing in all past approaches was the proposition of a course of income equal or superior to what ODFW gets from hunters.  As an example, licenses could be sold at all the same outlets as licenses to kill – and for the same amount!  Once all is sold, a tally could be made and from the 777 cougars that are property of ALL Oregonians, 500 may be bought back and saved.  Receiving money from non-hunters would curtail ODFW from recruiting more hunters (a really bad carbon imprint in the wilderness), relaxing regulations (a hay day for poachers), giving them more access to land (resulting in more private property damage and trespassing), and so on.  In paying ODFW, there is no doubt that the catastrophic situation for the cougars and other wildlife such as the declining bears and the horrific damage off road vehicles create, lead pollution from hunting ammo, private property damage, livestock killing, animal displacement from all the invasive activity the selling of 100,000 licenses can cause as well as a huge carbon imprint this kind of killing obsession promotes; will be turned around.  Then those who cherish a living Oregon wildlife and healthy ecosystems would in essence become ODFW’s other “employer.”

 

The problem with declining deer, elk and other animals hunters are obsessed to kill is not the natural predator such as the cougar, wolf or bear, it is the human predator who desires in their heart to kill and regards life only for that purpose and wants to remove the natural predator so as to satisfy the compulsive and selfish act the hunter has for killing for fun.  The hunting population is higher now in Oregon than at anyother time in our history.  Our Natural resources and wilderness can no longer sustain this kind of “sport” and carbon imprint it leaves.  It is not the cougar’s fault, nor the bear, or the wolf; it is a human with a sickening desire to kill that is the problem.  If you are hunting because you are hungry, go instead and support a local sustainable farmer with the money you would use to buy guns, vehicles, and ammo.  If you like to get out in the wilderness, take a camera instead of a gun and share your pictures for the world to see.  Leave your off road vehicle at home and walk.  You will live longer and you will be moving slow enough to embrace all the wonders of the wildness and our declining oil can be used for something purposeful. 

 

Hunting exploits and destroys.  Let's give ODFW a better tool to manage our Natural resources and a higher purpose for a better cougar management plan.  Please join Oregon Cougar Action Team by making a tax-deductible donation or becoming a member to help OreCat re-imagine Oregon and move forward our vision of Operation Buy Back Their Lives With A License To Protect, today.

 

     

Our goal is to live fear free with cougars as our Native Nations have done for thousands of years. Historically, America has been a culture that all to frequently killed anyone or animal they feared, did not understand, or believed may take a form of value from them, (Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 1492 to present”). Too many historic distorted views have shaped our culture in adverse ways towards ecosystems, species, and ultimately humans. It is time to remove the shackle of these fears and beliefs and distortions and sow seeds of peace, respect, compassion, community, and living fear free not only with cougars, but with any issue we do not understand or fear. With today’s growing issues with global warming, it is timely to make changes that protect all life on this planet. Knowledge is power that can remove fear and distorted views. Knowledge empowers people to make better choices and live better lives and develop better communities.  

 

 

Meet our Board Members.
 

Dr. Laurie Marker

Founder and director of Cheetah Conservation Fund located in Namibia (South West Africa

 

 

 

http://www.cheetah.org/?key=81&showdescription=1&html=people&data=people

 

Words do not describe the courage of Dr. Marker when she sold all she had and went to Namibia to save Africa’s Cheetah.  In her campaign to save the Cheetah, she has saved communities, teaching children and adults how to read, providing guard dogs for farmers and bridging the gap between Nations, beliefs, poverty, race and so much more.  In saving the Cheetah, Dr. Marker is helping save a Nation.  We could not be more blessed to have her as a board member.  Smithsonian March 2008, “Cheetahs, A Plan for Their Survival.”      

                                                                          

We are just now beginning to learn from science and studies  concerning cougars and cheetah, that their DNA are closely linked!    An astonishing discovery!                          

 

 

 

Harry MacCormack

Director of The Institute of Biowisdom located at 
www.sunbowfarm.org

 

Harry MacCormack, author, world speaker, retired from OSU, founding pioneer in Organic farming and was co-founder of Oregon Tilth and served as their 1st Executive director.  In fact, Oregon Tilth’s first offices were on his farm.   Harry’s compassion for people and the environment are some of the deepest felt I have ever seen.

 

 

His endless energy helped Oregon Cougar Action Team promote “Come Fire and the Flood Moona play-dance based on an ancient centuries old Kalapulian Cougar story dance that has only been performed about twice in 100 years.  With Harry’s guidance and staff support from Chemawa Native Indian school, Harry orchestrated a fantastic program focusing on Native children returning to their Elders and roots to learn the language of the Kalapuyan and their 1000's of years old Cougar dance.  Harry secured masks made by the Portland Performing Arts and were on loan to us from the Benton County Museum, and spent endless hours with students rehearsing and learning the dance.  It was a fantastic program that gave students a focus other than gangs and sent a positive message to Oregonians about saving Oregon's cougar.  The students and Harry danced at the Capital and the public, Governor and State Legislature were invited.  They danced for the City of Silverton and did a spectacular dance for the school districts of Linn Benton Counties at the Benton County Museum.  Harry designs the kind of programs that Oregon Cougar Action Team wants to sponsor.

 

 

Chemawa Students dancing on the steps of the State Capital Building in "Come Fire and the Flood Moon " historic cougar dance. 

 

 

 

Jayne Miller

www.GrapeLanePoultryFarm.org

 

 

 

I am the founder of Oregon Cougar Acton Team.  I am also a cattle ranchers daughter, I have served in the military, graduated from WOSC, and spent 17 years as an international purchasing agent in the oil cartel fields of Saudi Arabia and for Boise Cascade Pulp and Paper.  Under the tutelage of Lynn Sadler, I spent 1800 hours with the Mountain Lion Foundation learning all I could about cougars and how to help save them.  I want to thank the Mountain Lion Foundation for all they taught me and wish Lynn well working on saving Florida’s cougar.

 

I give presentations from kindergarten up through college about the nature of cougars, how to prepare to stay safe around them, what to do if you see a cougar, and tips on how to protect your livestock from natural predators.  I talk about the features of cougars, how they cannot see like we do but see more like pixels on a bad computer day.  How they raise their young, what to expect and how you can protect yourself and the cougar should you ever meet one!  I have encountered several cougars in my life and am thrilled to have met them!  I give people information I have learned from science and biologists that alleviate fear and negative reactions towards cougar.   How I came about to want to protect the cougar goes back to my childhood.  I grew up on my parents 7000 acre cattle ranch in Klamath Falls Oregon.  We ran 1000 head of cattle per year.  I had the great good fortune to live, play and work around cougar, bobcat and other large game all around our home.  We had 145 acre lake fed year round by 90 degree warm springs.   Geese and other fantastic birds would feed and raise their young around the lake all year long.  My father never allowed hunting or trapping and as a result of this I witnessed a healthy, natural balance living with Nature as it was suppose to be.  Coyotes would sleep under our front porch and I was taught to never fear them.  The animals become part of our lives with nature and character all their own.  I was blessed.  I witnessed and lived what many today have no knowledge of in a land where I could drink from any spring without fear of contaminants and song birds of various kinds sang me to wake each morning.  Of the thousands of cattle we raised, none were ever lost to any natural predator.  Because we did not hunt, poison or trap, there was enough food to go around, leaving our livestock out of the picture.  We did dedicate 200 acres of the 2000 acres of grain we grew to the deer.  Dad said it was cheaper than hunting or poisons. 

 

Over the years I have seen too many changes on Oregon’s landscape that are dismaying to witness.  To all our children, I am sorry for that.  I have done my best to stop this reckless march towards irreversable destruction and it is my hope that OreCat is one small way to help in a very big way. 

 

 

And then there is Krystal!  Where would we be without her letter writing!

 

 

Krystal is a licensed veterinary technician with a background in zoology and wildlife conservation.  She has done volunteer work at Wildlife Images and is currently a member of the H.S.U.S, Defenders of Wildlife, The Mountain Lion Foundation, and of course The Oregon Cougar Action Team. She has written numerous published newspaper articles about cougars and has always been passionate about the protection and preservation of the Big Cats.  She lives near the wilderness in a small town in Oregon with her dog and 4 fabulous cats.

 


Oregon Cougar Action Team
OreCat
PO Box 1183
Jefferson, Oregon 97352
503-743-2318
EIN 26-2492196
 

Oregon Cougar Action Team is dedicated to the preservation of Oregon’s cougar and the biosystem the cougar sustains. We are a 501c-3 Not-For-Profit educational foundation

working to help people make better decisions about cougars, promote open spaces for them, and create better wilderness management plans. OreCat offers educational presentations and tools for free to Oregonians, schools, communities and Churches to help citizens, livestock and agriculture enterprises live fear free with cougars as our Native Nations have done for thousands of years.   

 

 

Please join Oregon Cougar Action Team and support our efforts by contributing $10.00 or more towards helping us save Oregon’s cougar.  Your contributions are tax deductible and your information will remain private.  All funds are used in our PowerPoint presentations, public safety awareness and our new program designed by members of OreCat:

 Operation Buy Back Their Lives With A License To Protect.

 

 

If you are a teacher, biologist, web designer or believe you have other foundation skills to help build Oregon Cougar Action Team and would like to be a board member, please contact:

 

Jayne Miller, elderoak1@yahoo.com 

 
 
 
 "Come Fire and the Flood Moon" Cougar
Dance Fan

 

 

 

 

Whale Daughter falls in love with cougar in

"Come Fire and the Flood Moon

 

 

 

Chemewa Students dance for the cougars in the State Capital 

 

 

 

 

 

Contrary to legend and gossip, cougars do not stalk from trees and jump down on humans or horses, although, my want-to-be-cougar Stevie pictured below in his favorite walnut tree would like to you believe otherwise!  Contact us for a presentation at your school or community group to learn more about cougars!