"The state Fish and Game Commission on Thursday set the stage for a fierce environmental battle by granting temporary endangered species status to the several hundred cougars still roaming Southern California and the Central Coast.
The protection came with the 5-member panel’s unanimous decision to consider a petition filed by environmentalists to list as threatened or endangered six, isolated clans of cougars hemmed in by sprawl and freeways.
The move is considered preliminary under terms of the state Endangered Species Act. Next, the commission will hold public hearings. A permanent decision could go into force in 2022.
If the big cats are permanently listed, the law requires state wildlife managers to devise a recovery plan for them, raising the prospect of constraints on development and highway construction from Santa Cruz to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity and the nonprofit Mountain Lion Foundation."
Louis Sahagun reports for the Los Angeles Times April 16, 2020.
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