Ranchers, traditionally, have not been among the most predator-friendly special-interest groups. Apex predators on the ranch tend to equal dead livestock, and the ones that don’t die are skittish and traumatized, lowering their reproductive rate.

Among the most frustrating predators of livestock are the mobile, stealthy, and deadly mountain lion, a perennial scourge that can do heavy damage to a herd. However, the big cats are also an integral part of mountain ecosystems and help maintain wild herbivore numbers.

Conflicts between humans and mountain lions are the driving force behind the ongoing state and federal effort to reduce their numbers through culling in the state of Oregon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, under contract with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife plan, have begun a lion management plan that specifies the population should be reduced to about 3,000, from its 2003 high of 5,100.

However, the environmental impact associated with this undertaking is unknown; Wildlife Services did not make its plan public or submit it for scientific or public review. So several concerned parties filed a lawsuit against the state and federal agencies last month, seeking to force officials to submit an Environmental Impact Statement to account for the effects of its culling the cougar population by roughly 40 percent. The EIS would force the agency give the public and other government agencies the opportunity to weigh in on the particulars of the plan.

Among the plaintiffs, oddly enough, is a ranchers’ group, the Goat Ranchers of Oregon, who seek to maintain a healthy mountain lion population. Who ever said that lions wouldn’t lie down with lambs?