How to Join or Renew Your Membership

Membership is open to anyone interested in the large native cats known across eastern North America as panthers, cougars, mountain lions, pumas, painters, and catamounts. Dues are $20 per calendar year and finance quarterly newsletters as well as programs to achieve the goals of the organization. To join, either use our secure PayPal payment system (see below) or send a check to the Eastern Cougar Foundation, PO Box 300, Harman, WV, 26270. The ECF is a 501(c)(3) organization.  Dues and donations are tax-deductible.

Regular ECF Annual Membership ($20) Annual membership includes the ECF Newsletter delivered via email or USPS. Donate to ECF With a donation of $20 or more to the Eastern Cougar Foundation, you will receive a 1-year ECF membership which includes the ECF Newsletter delivered via email. With a donation of $100 or more, you will automatically receive a signed copy of The Eastern Cougar, a book by Chris Bolgiano and Jerry Roberts.

Mission & Goals

Mission statement: To facilitate the recovery of the cougar in suitable wild habitat in the central and eastern United States.

1. Promote recovery of breeding populations of cougars through natural recolonization and mandated restorations to the central and eastern United States, advocating responsible management in habitat where cougars are recovering.

2. Promote full legal protection of all cougars living wild in the central and eastern United States, regardless of origin.

3. Conduct public education programs by preparing cougar education modules and lesson plans, exhibiting at outdoor and conservation events, and giving presentations to interested groups.

4. Conduct habitat and public attitude surveys.

5. Evaluate evidence and conduct investigations in collaboration with wildlife agencies to document cougar presence along their expanding range into eastern habitat.

 

Officers and Board of Directors

Officers
President: Christopher Spatz 
Past President: Todd Lester, WVA Coal Miner, Conservationist, ECF Founder.
Dr. Jay Tischendorf
Vice President: Dr. John Laundré
Secretary/Treasurer: Judy Tipton
Newsletter Editor, Archivist, and Membership Secretary : Helen McGinnis
Internship Coordinator:  Dr. Marcella Kelly, Va Tech

Board of Directors:
Chris Bolgiano, writer and author of articles, investigative reports, radio commentaries, and several books including two on the eastern cougar. Also retired adjunct professor at James Madison University and one of original co-founders of The Eastern Cougar Foundation.  
 
Dr. Jay Tischendorf, veterinarian, cougar researcher, organizer of the 1994 Eastern Cougar Conference, and co-organizer of the 2004 Eastern Cougar Conference.

Kerry Gyekis, Pennsylvania-based Forester, Land Planner, Hunter, and former Peace Corps Volunteer.

Christopher Spatz, MSW, rock climber and New York based conservationist.

Judy Tipton, inventor, business owner, and Kentucky based ECF researcher.

Dr. John Laundré, pioneering conservation biologist in predator ecology. Studied cougars in the West and in Mexico for more than 20 years.  He now lives and teaches in Oswego, New York.

Will Stolzenburg, former editor for The Nature Conservancy, author of Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Environmental Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators. He lives in Shepherdstown, WV.

Helen McGinnis, retired. MA, Paleontology; MS, Wildlife Management. Her interest in cougar recovery is a natural outgrowth of her advocacy of federal wilderness areas in the East. She lives in northern West Virginia.

Advisors:
Todd Lester, ECF founder.

Susan Morse, carnivore expert and director of Keeping Track.

Mark Jenkins, director of Cooper's Rock Mountain Lion Sanctuary for abused captive cougars..

Dr. Marcella Kelly, Assistant Professor of Wildlife Biology at VA Polytechnic Institute who researches jaguars with remote cameras in Belize and black bears in VA.

Emeritus Advisors:
Robert L. "Bob" Downing, USFWS, Retired

Advisor, Posthumus:
Dr. David S. Maehr(September 18, 1955 - June 20, 2008), conservation biologist at the Univ. of KY and former leader of the FL Panther Field Research Program.
In Memory of Dave Maehr

History

The Eastern Cougar Foundation was established in 1998 by West Virginian Todd Lester. Early one morning in 1983, when Todd was hunting, he saw an animal he'd never seen before: a long-tailed cat stepping cautiously down the mountainside. Todd knew that cougars were native to the Appalachian Mountains because of the family stories his grandmother told. Sure of what he'd seen, and thrilled by it, Todd tried to talk to state game department officials, but they rudely dismissed him.

Since then, Todd read widely and spent innumerable hours in the field, including Florida panther habitat, to learn about cougars. He posted flyers throughout southern West Virginia and adjoining areas asking people to call him if they see a cougar. He followed up the most credible reports with field searches. In the 1990s, Todd established the eastern cougar listserv as a forum for people with interest in eastern cougars and expertise in cougar biology. In May, 2001, Todd completed an accredited 13-course program in forestry and wildlife management.

After hearing many stories of negative responses from wildlife officials to reports of cougars, Todd realized that an organization was needed to advocate for recognition and protection of cougars in the East, regardless of their origins. “Cougars are magnificent animals,” Todd says, “and they represent the essence of the wild country I love.”

For a profile of Todd Lester, see the ECF Store for the book, Living in the Appalachian Forest: True Tales of Sustainable Forestry (Stackpole Books, 2002).

In the summer of 2007, family and work responsibilities forced Todd to step down as president of ECF. He was succeeded as Interim President by Dr. Jay Tischendorf. Jay earned a BS degree in Zoology from Ohio University in 1984. He spent most of the next decade working as research assistant and field biologist on numerous federal, private, and academic studies primarily involving threatened or endangered predators. This work included service with such many notable wildlife scientists and organizations. Working under Maurice Hornocker and Gary Koehler in 1986, Jay helped to confirm for the first time in modern history the presence of a population of mountain lions in Yellowstone National Park. Subsequently, working as biologist and houndsman with Kerry Murphy, he spent two years tracking, capturing, immobilizing, and studying these cats.

After a subsequent four summers of wildland firefighting, Jay returned to school for advanced medical and scientific training. This led to a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences degree from Colorado State University in 1997. In addition to positions in clinical veterinary practice and the pharmaceutical industry, he continues to spend his professional life engaged in research on wildlife, primarily threatened and endangered predators, both avian and mammalian.

As a wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Tischendorf has consulted with the US Fish and Wildlife Service red wolf and black-footed ferret recovery programs, as well as with the US Forest Service Northern Rockies Wolverine Study. Jay is a federally licensed raptor bander. Additionally, Jay served for four years as field veterinarian for the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Bobcat Research Project, during which time he helped pioneer the use of surgically implanted radio-transmitters in carnivore research. In Spring 2004 he consulted with US National Park Service wildlife researchers in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in southern California, work that led soon after to the first successful application of radio-implants in mountain lions.

The founder and director of the American Ecological Research Institute, Dr. Tischendorf’s work and travels have taken him to all corners of North America. Jay has probably spent more time afield with a wider variety of threatened and endangered North American wildlife than any other biologist or wildlife veterinarian. He has been actively involved with the subject of pumas in the East for 25 years and has written extensively on the subject. Jay was the principal organizer of the first Eastern Cougar Conference, held in 1994 in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a co-organizer of the 2nd Eastern Cougar Conference, held in Morgantown, West Virginia in 2004.

On October 1, 2008, Jay Tischendorf was succeeded by Christopher Spatz as the ECF's third president. A relative newcomer to cougar studies, Chris brings his networking and advocacy experience as a clinical social worker and conservationist to the pursuit of returning cougars to the East.

He has run trailcam studies seeking cougars sanctioned by the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife at High Point State Park, NJ, and at Minnewaska State Park Preserve near his home in the Shawangunks of southern New York State. A rock climber for thirty years, Chris was honored by the Access Fund, a national climbing advocacy group representing the sport's 1.6 million climbers, with their 2006 Sharp End Award for his work as a director of the Gunks Climbers' Coalition. His natural history essays have appeared in AMC Outdoors, The Weekender magazine, and on WAMC, the NPR affiliate in Albany, NY.

Position Statements

On Reintroduction:  The ECF advocates implementation of the FL Panther reintroduction plan including community outreach and education.

ECF supports efforts to determine public sentiment toward predators and their recovery , and advocates science and evidence-based wildlife management to promulgate sound, solid, sensible conservation of our natural resources, including the puma and other wildlife. As well, the Eastern Cougar Foundation is not opposed to sustainable sport hunting of cougars in areas where significant cougar populations are documented. However, at this time there are no such populations documented in the eastern United States.

On Origins of Cougars:  There are three possible sources for cougars in the East:  remnant natives, escaped/released captives, and migrants from known populations in Florida, the western U.S., and Canada.  It is entirely possible that cougars from two or all three sources are mingling (for an example of mixed ancestry, see the KY kitten confirmation, no. 13 under Confirmations on the Beyond Sightings to Signs page).  The ECF believes that any cougar capable of living independently wild is capable of filling the eastern cougar niche regardless of origins, and should be protected and respected as an eastern cougar.

On Cougars as Pets:   The ECF opposes the breeding and maintenance of cougars as pets.

The Eastern Cougar Foundation in the News

Logan Banner, West Virginia, 1/09/2006 (PDF)

Jay Tischendorf interview in Hazleton (PA) Standard-Speaker, March 4, 2007, article by Allen Gregory

Talk by Kerry Gyekis at Beltzville State Park, Pennsylvania, October 4, 2007, article by Al Zagofsky

Talk by Kerry Gyekis at Beltzville State Park, Pennsylvania, October 4, 2007, article by John Serrao

Kerry Gyekis and Eastern Cougar Foundation Feature Article, November 2007:
http://mountainhomemag.com/november/cover_story.php

Cat Tales' in the Alleghenies - The Pocahontas Times, Mountain Times - November 2007

Eastern Cougar Foundation president calls for restorations East of the Prairies - North Jersey.com and Cougar News - January 17, 2010

Why the Midwest and East Needs the Puma

ECF members are being asked to articulate why they want to see cougars return to the eastern woods.  As these essays are received they will be posted here.  To start them off, here is an excerpt from Chris Bolgiano's book Mountain Lion:  An Unnatural History of Pumas and People (Stackpole Books, 1995):

"In the end, it doesn't really matter whether "eastern" cougars are out there or not.  What matters is that cougars should be there.  Cougars belong in the East by evolutionary birthright.  It is the ripening of this idea that makes our time different from Adam Rudolph's [19th century cougar hunter's] day.  Still, it will be difficult to actually turn the idea into reality, to bring cougars back.  Unlike bears, which have been teddified for nearly a century, and wolves, whose admirable family life is now well known, cougars offer little on which to hang a notion of kinship.  They must be accepted on their own wild terms.  To find the humility to atone for past mistakes, to find the greatness of heart to share the woods with a being far beyond our ken -- that is the spiritual challenge of the eastern panther.

"Ambivalence has long been recognized as fundamental to the human psyche.  Sigmund Freud began writing about it in 1912, and many other students of human nature have explored its dimensions.  Ambivalence develops through stages that children pass through; perhaps cultures pass through them, too.  A child might say on one day she loves her brother and on the next, hates him.  With growth comes first the recognition that two opposite emotions might be aroused by one experience or person, then the understanding that those emotions might coexist simultaneously.  The final step to maturity is integration:  to balance the extremes without denying the complexities.

"Sometimes at dusk I sit on my deck and watch sunset-streaked clouds fade away behind Cross Mountain.  I wonder how it would be to know a panther crouches there again, yellow eyes gleaming, muscles taut, utterly focused.  How it would be to accept the risks with understanding and respect, in return for the rightness.  A dank breeze slides down Cross Mountain and a chill rises up my back.  It would feel, I think, like freedom."

WHY I WANT COUGARS BACK
Ben Shrader (VA)
Submitted January 2008

When I give thought to why I want cougars back, I could not get the thinking process going without soul searching and wondering what my ancestors would contribute to our dilemmas if they were here today.  My great grandfather (1838-1920) lived his entire life on ancestry land pioneered by our ancestors.  They lived totally off the land and supported raising of their families by hunting, cultivating corps, and growing livestock.   A confederate veteran, he was noted for his marksmanship and hunting skills.  He used a mountain fiest dog and a small bore mountain rife for hunting.  Although I doubt that he realized it, he is credited for killing probably the last known deer and wild turkey from this area of Tazewell County, Va. of this time.  Had a cougar wandered into this area then he would have killed it and would have been the family and neighborhood hero for eliminating the fear and threat of the beast.  The philosophy was that game was food for the table and a predator was a threat to you, your game, and livestock.

My grandfather (1872-1960) clung to the tradition of providing for the family from the land long after the industrial revolution and government had all but eliminated this historical way of life.  Squirrels, rabbits, grouse, and groundhogs were a large part of the diet.  Even though foxes were highly respected for a good hound chase, a fox near the chicken house or circling hawk was as good as dead.

My father (1902-1990), a coal miner, continued the family tradition of hunting.  He became actively involved in the restoration of deer and wild turkeys to the area. After years of the restoration process it was news to hear of someone miles away that had seen a deer.  I did not see a wild turkey in Tazewell County until 1963.  We traveled to adjoining Bland and Smyth Counties to deer hunt since there was no open season at that time in Tazewell County.   Perhaps realizing the error of our accessorial ways my father was very respectful and supportive of new hunting laws and exhibited sympathy for all wildlife.  Even though most farmers consider groundhogs nuisance, he forbid me to shoot on unless I prepared to be eaten or gave it to someone that would eat it.  My father reported that his coon dogs treed a cougar (he called it “panther”) about 1950 in Short Mountain of Tazewell County.  As he approached the tree the cougar jumped and eluded his dogs in some high rock cliffs.   I never ask the question as whether he would have killed it if he could, but I suspect he would have out of curiosity or have thought that he was somehow helping local sheep farmers protect their livelihood.  His passion for protection of wildlife likely had not developed to include such predators by this time.

These last few generations have witnessed dramatic change in wildlife, public attitudes, and a whole way of life.  If these ancestors could now look back they would realize that their fear of cougars was unjustified and what they once thought was an over-abundance of wildlife was so limited that they nearly extirpated God’s creations from the area.  Knowing their love and passions for the outdoors, I have no doubt that they would now embrace the reintroduction of cougars to the eastern United States.  My father had only once in a lifetime opportunity to see a wild cougar in the East, or perhaps that should that be rephrased to “It has been rare to even have a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a wild cougar in the East”.   In my 63 years I have had the rare privilege to see a cougar take down a deer in Bedford County, VA in 1995, but I still hold out hope that will not to be a once in a lifetime event for me, whether it be former captive transplant, migrant, or native.

  What a success story on management of deer, bear, and turkeys in Virginia!  In virtually all of Virginia land owners and valid license holders are allowed 3 wild turkeys per year, bears are more abundant than in the last 100 years, and deer are so abundant that the game department openly encourages hunters to harvest more does.   Many localities even hire sharpshooters to eliminate nuisance deer.  Credit Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries for public education about bears.  Thirty years ago the public would not have tolerated the current population of bears in Virginia.  Missing is the cougar, the public can be educated about them too. Cougar’s dinner table is now set with their favorite meal, deer.  The time is now for this generation to correct the mistakes of our ancestors and follow through on getting cougars re-introduced to the eastern states.  I feel it is my duty and obligation to contribute to the natural balance of our wildlife.   If wildlife management were compared to decorating a Christmas tree, re-introduction of cougars to the east would be like placing the angel on top of a tree in which its branches were already drooping with deer, bears and turkeys. 

WHY I WANT COUGARS BACK
  By Helen McGinnis (WV)  

The only time I've seen a wild mountain lion was in June 1962 when I was backpacking by myself up the Wooley Creek Trail, a 20 mile walk into the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area in northwestern California. I hadn't seen anyone all day. I camped in a clearing beside a substantial log cabin-locked-surrounded by several flimsy unlocked small cabins. I was cooking dinner over a campfire when motion at the edge of the clearing caught my eye. There, maybe 50 feet away, was the unmistakable heavy long tail and hindquarters of a mountain lion running back up the trail. Who knows how long it had been watching me before it got frightened and decided to retreat? 

I jumped up and down, cheered and hollered. I knew how rare it was see one of the cats. Then I began to get a bit worried. I ended up spending the night in one of the flimsy cabins, tying the door closed as best I could with a piece of cord. The next day I continued up the trail. From time to time within the first ½ mile or so I saw-or thought I saw-the cat's tracks in muddy places in the trail. And I kept hearing snarls, which always turned out to be jet planes overhead.

I don't think that event is what made me a cougar advocate, however. A native of California, I moved east in 1966. I soon found myself missing what I took for granted in that state. Not Jeffrey pines, manzanita bushes, valley oaks or other species native to that California, but protected wilderness and its implications. I became involved in a campaign to designate federal wilderness areas in the Monongahela National Forest of West Virginia; I'd taken those for granted in California. In the words of the Wilderness Act, a wilderness is an area "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man." The key word is untrammeled, meaning unrestrained. In other words, where natural processes are allowed to occur instead of being managed to produce commodities, such as timber, grasslands for livestock grazing, or favored game species.

Around 1974 I attended a wilderness conference in Colorado. The keynote speaker - I can't remember his name but it might have been Sigurd Olsen - said that as far as he was concerned, a wilderness wasn't a wilderness without wolves. That made sense. When the white man arrived in the East, the top predators were Native Americans, wolves and cougars. Natives are no longer a factor. Wolves have limited potential for a comeback, because they interbreed with the newly arrived and abundant eastern coyotes and because they are conspicuous to human predators. The elusive cougar has a better chance. We already have them here in West Virginia, but they are likely exceedingly rare and may not exist as a stable breeding population. I want to know for certain that they are back, to cut down our excessive deer herd and for their own sake. So that young people can encounter a cougar as I once did, and whoop and jump for joy. So that there will be a tang of excitement in the out of doors that is absent when they are gone.

WHY I WANT COUGARS BACK
  By Paul Willison

Cougars, like wolves and bears, represent the wilderness in a tangible way.   Where cougars still walk, wilderness in at least some form must still exist. That is, for some reason, terribly important to me.    When I am alone on a high ridge overlooking the Manistee river valley, it is somehow very important to me that somewhere out there, a lion walks along another ridge, looking over the same river.

Why I Want Cougars Back
By Kevin Heyde (MO)

What a breath taking experience! A cougar, it was only 80 yards away, and totally unaware of my presence. It appeared instantly, stayed for a short while, and then vanished with an explosive, powerful leap. Cougars are the epitome of beauty, grace, and awesome deadly power. I have been blessed with two such encounters here in northern Missouri. The first one mentioned above was during deer season in the late 80’s, and the second one was treed by my coonhounds in the late 90’s. For any person who enjoys the outdoors, an experience like this is priceless. For me it was like winning the lottery. It is similar to having a wild deer feeding close enough to you that you can almost count its eyelashes. I wish everyone could have a similar experience with a cougar.

The most frequent thing I hear when confronting someone about the possibility of an increasing cougar population is, “We don’t want them around here! They will kill livestock, and people for that matter!” Coyotes have always been with us, and it is very rare that one turns into a problem animal. When they do become a problem, they are dealt with and the world goes on. Another thing I often hear against cougars is, “Just wait until they get over populated”. Through natures own design I think it would be very rare for them to over populate an area, they don’t reproduce rapidly. On the other hand, we have witnessed the bobcat becoming so plentiful in a short time period that they have had to open a season on them.

I feel that we need to work together to educate people about this wonderful creature. The more they know the less fear they will have. If they become a problem in the future then they can be dealt with accordingly. Let’s not find them guilty before they commit a crime. I have an idea that we may not get to have a say in the outcome. The sightings have increased dramatically in the past 10 years indicating that there might be a population increase whether we like it or not.

In local circles it used to be, “Hey, so and so thinks they saw a cougar”. Now it seems to be more common to hear, “Hey, I heard you saw one too.”  I doubt it is possible, but who knows, maybe in the future they will become common enough to reach game animal status. After all, ½ a century ago deer sightings were scoffed at in many places. Regardless of the size of their population, re-read the first paragraph and you will know, “Why I Want Cougars!” 

 "Why I Want Cougars Back"
by Joanne Horne (CT)

Did you hear the latest? No, of course not. I've become a "tracker", looking for evidence of a New England Cougar---supposedly, they are extinct around the NorthEast??? Not to me ...  I truly saw one the day of the big blackout August 14, 2003 at 8 a.m.

I was in the woods (about 30 yards from my back lawn where I hung my bird feeder and used to feed the deer corn)...when I see this animal coming from my neighbor's direction after jumping the stone wall that separates us. Walking right towards me. At first I thought it was a small deer (not a fawn)....and then it veered north away from me, just loping along, no fear of "this intruder" (me) in its space.  I still didn't know exactly what it was, but felt I would get a good look soon. I moved up the slight hill, just as it was climbing a downed oak tree & leaped up on the ledge to the small mountain behind my home on my property.

That's when I saw this very long fat tail (said to myself, gee that looks familiar); definitely feline...this tail almost hit the ground but curved up at the end. I was no further than 100 yards (an easy 9 iron for me!) away when I saw its tail.

I could have watched it longer (really forever!) as I was so thrilled at the recognition, but then I said to myself that's a MT. LION !!! I got a little scared. I slowly backed away and went into the house. Whew! What an awesome and spirit-lifting experience. What a thrill!

It has been over four weeks since that wonderful experience and I am still high. It was a life changing event and I'm quite enthused to prove the Mt. Lion does exist in the NorthEast, in Connecticut. But, there's a disappointing and sad feeling that accompanies the thrill -- the fact that I may never see another Cougar again---they are so rare.

Yes, I want wildness back. To quote Henry David Thoreau, "In wildness is the preservation of the world."

I want the Mt. Lions to thrive, breed and be where they belong. I want less forests cut down for subdivisions. I want to continue to think every morning when the sun rises in the beautiful eastern sky here in the western hills of Connecticut, that "Yes, the Mt. Lion exists, he has finished his nightly hunt, and survives another day".  I pray when the gorgeous sun sets in the west, that this magnificent wild cat is still out there beginning his journey of survival. Oh, how I wish everyone could experience true wildness so closely and not fear; just be as thrilled as I still am and will always be, about my close encounter with the elegant and beautiful New England Mt. Lion. Can it be in my lifetime?