Read Our Terms of Service for Website Use and Guidelines

Last updated: July 9, 2026

Welcome to easterncougar.org, a website operated for public education, conservation history, field research discussion, and rewilding advocacy related to cougars in eastern North America.

These Terms of Service are written to be read, not hidden. They set the ground rules for using this site, quoting our work, submitting information, and understanding the limits of what a public-interest conservation website can provide.

Acceptance of Terms and Conditions

By visiting, browsing, reading, sharing, or otherwise using this website, you agree to follow these Terms of Service. The same rules apply whether you arrive from a search result, a social media post, a direct link, or a field-research resource page.

If you do not agree with these terms, do not use the site.

Who these terms apply to

These terms apply to all visitors and users, including readers, researchers, educators, advocates, journalists, public officials, and people who submit sighting information or contact us through the site.

You do not need to create an account to be covered by these terms. Simple use of the site is enough.

Intellectual Property and Use License

Unless otherwise stated, the text, page structure, graphics, research summaries, educational materials, and other content on this website belong to easterncougar.org, the Cougar Rewilding Foundation, its contributors, or its licensors.

You may use site content for personal, non-commercial purposes. That includes reading an article, printing a copy for your own reference, sharing a link with a class or community group, or quoting a short excerpt with clear attribution.

What the license allows

This site grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive license to access and use the content for lawful personal and educational purposes. It does not transfer ownership of the content to you.

For example, a teacher may link to a conservation history page in a lesson plan. A local naturalist may share a public article with a tracking group. A reporter may quote a brief passage and identify the source.

What requires permission

You may not republish entire articles, copy large portions of the site into another website, sell our materials, use our work in paid products, remove attribution, or present our content as your own without written permission.

Automated copying, bulk downloading, and redistribution are also prohibited unless we have given prior written approval. This matters because field reports, historical records, and interpretive conservation materials can lose context when stripped from their source.

User Conduct and Responsibilities

Use this site only for lawful purposes. Do not use it to harass others, spread false claims, interfere with conservation work, or disrupt the website’s normal operation.

Submitted information

If you send us a message, submit a sighting account, or provide other details through the site, you are responsible for keeping that information truthful, current, and submitted in good faith. Do not knowingly send fabricated reports, altered locations, misidentified photographs presented as certain evidence, or material that infringes another person’s rights.

We understand that wildlife observations can be uncertain. A careful “I am not sure what I saw” is more useful than an exaggerated claim.

Technical misuse

You may not attempt to hack, probe, overload, scrape, reverse engineer, bypass access controls, inject malicious code, or interfere with the security or availability of the site.

Do not use bots, crawlers, scripts, or automated tools in a way that burdens the website or copies content at scale. Search engines may index the site through ordinary, respectful crawling, but abusive collection is not allowed.

Community standards

When communicating with us, keep the exchange civil. Conservation debates can be sharp, especially where wildlife policy, livestock concerns, public safety, and ecological restoration meet. Sharp does not need to become abusive.

Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

The content on this website is provided “as is” for general informational and educational use. We work to make our materials careful and useful, but we do not warrant that every page is complete, current, error-free, or suited to a specific purpose.

Information limits

Wildlife science, public records, agency policy, taxonomy, and conservation practice change over time. A page discussing historical eastern cougar records may not reflect the newest agency action. A field note may describe a specific context and should not be stretched beyond it.

Nothing on this website is a substitute for professional advice, including legal, medical, veterinary, land-management, public-safety, or wildlife-agency guidance. If you are facing an immediate safety concern involving a large animal, contact the appropriate local authority through emergency or wildlife-response channels.

No warranty

We make no warranty of accuracy, completeness, reliability, availability, fitness for a particular purpose, or uninterrupted access. Links, references, and dated materials may change without notice.

Liability limits

To the fullest extent permitted by law, easterncougar.org, the Cougar Rewilding Foundation, contributors, partners, and affiliated individuals are not liable for damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, this website.

This includes indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or similar losses, including loss of data, lost opportunity, reputational harm, or decisions made in reliance on site content. Some jurisdictions limit exclusions of liability, so these limits apply only where the law allows them.

Governing Law and Future Modifications

These terms are interpreted under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the site operator conducts its work, unless a mandatory local law requires a different result. Any dispute related to these terms or use of the site falls under the competent local courts for that jurisdiction.

If one term cannot be enforced

If a court finds that one part of these terms is invalid or unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. The unenforceable part should be interpreted as closely as possible to its original purpose while staying within the law.

Changes to these terms

We may revise these Terms of Service periodically. We do this when site features change, legal requirements shift, publication practices evolve, or clearer wording would better serve readers.

When we update the terms, we will change the revision date near the top of this page. Continuing to use the site after an update means you accept the revised terms.

For privacy-related practices, read our Privacy Policy. If your question involves cookies or similar technologies, see the Cookie Policy.

Questions and Contact Information

If you have a question about these Terms of Service, want to request permission to reuse material, or need to report a concern about site content, contact us through the channels listed on our Contact Us page.

Include the page URL, the material involved, and a short explanation of your request. That gives us enough context to respond without sending you back for basics.

Permission requests

For republication, classroom packets, media use, exhibit text, or research-related reuse, tell us what you want to use, where it will appear, whether the use is commercial, and how attribution will be shown.

Before copying or republishing any site material, send the page link and intended use through Contact Us so we can review the request.