Saving Big Cats From Humans

The author, at right, with a cougar kitten and Caitlin Kupar, project coordinator for the Olympic Cougar Project. Photo: Michael Kodas.

Inside Story: Saving Big Cats From Humans

The Olympic Peninsula in Washington is home to the Olympic Cougar Project, which works with human residents with a low carnivore tolerance. Inside Climate News’ journalist Liza Gross and photographer Michael Kodas revealed the challenges and benefits of conserving cougars who live near previously uninhabited human lands, winning second place for outstanding feature story, small in the Society of Environmental Journalist’s 23rd Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment.

SEJ judges said of their report, “Crowding Out Cougars,” that “Gross and Kodas mix history and personal interviews to explain the cougar depredation conflict between opponents and supporters of cougars; 'teaching fully grown humans how to live with cougars has indeed proven to be one of the project's biggest challenges.' Balancing perspectives from residents, Indigenous people (Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe) and wildlife experts at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Gross writes a comprehensive review of the ecological value of majestic animals to the human population. Kodas captures beautiful images that integrate moral obligation and compassion into the equation of human population expansion.”

SEJournal Online interviewed Gross by email about the project. Here’s the conversation, lightly edited for clarity and style. (Full disclosure: Kodas serves on the SEJ board and its Editorial Advisory Board.)

SEJournal: How did you get your winning story idea?

Liza Gross: I had planned a trip to Patagonia to report on pumas with the help of a Fund for Environmental Journalism grant, focusing on the trophic and behavioral dynamics of a scaled-down food web there, but then the pandemic hit, and I had to ditch the project. But I still wanted to report on mountain lions and take advantage of that fantastic grant, so I contacted a world-leading mountain lion expert I know to find out what he was working on.

One of his projects really stood out for me: helping people who moved to thickly forested regions of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, prime lion habitat, to learn how to coexist with the big cats. The biologist, Mark Elbroch, was studying mostly young lions to figure out where to put a wildlife crossing corridor over Interstate 5, which served as a barrier to lions on both sides of the highway, reducing genetic diversity. But so many of his study cats kept winding up dead because people on the peninsula were routinely leaving their goats, sheep and pets unattended at night, easy prey for young cats.

Elbroch was working with several tribes on the peninsula to ensure the long-term survival of lions there and I saw a fantastic opportunity to help people see the big cats as the tribes did, as relatives rather than foes.

SEJournal: What was the biggest challenge in reporting the piece and how did you solve that challenge?

 

‘I really struggled to ensure

that I treated everyone with

empathy and portrayed them

with compassion and respect.’

 

Gross: I had a hard time understanding how someone could move into the middle of a vast forest and have no idea that mountain lions lived there, let alone smaller predators that could harm or kill unprotected domestic animals. I really struggled to ensure that I treated everyone with empathy and portrayed them with compassion and respect. I thought that was essential to helping readers see mountain lions’ right to exist and their role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem that benefits everyone.

SEJournal: What most surprised you about your findings?

Gross: I was surprised to learn that patches of forest reserved for timber harvesting actually provide a sort of refuge for mountain lions to raise their young. Even when you could hear chain saws roaring in the near distance, the loggers didn’t get close enough to disturb a den.

Sometimes logging companies worked with the biologists to avoid areas with dens. Other times, mom just moved the cubs away from the logging crew to another part of the logging tract. Either way, loggers proved far less threatening to the cats than people on the peninsula who were so quick to pull a gun. I’d never thought of a logged area as refuge for any kind of wildlife before.

SEJournal: How did you decide to tell the story and why?

 

‘It’s particularly hard to lose

so many young animals,

not just emotionally but

seeing the impacts on

the population’s persistence.’

 

Gross: I wanted to tell the story through the eyes of the biologists working to protect the lions for many reasons. For one thing, that could help readers understand not just the ecology and behavior of the cats but also correct myths, which are many with large carnivores. Critically, I thought it would create emotional tension for readers, so they could appreciate the bonds field biologists form with their study animals and feel the pain and sadness of losing even one animal, let alone so many. It’s particularly hard to lose so many young animals, not just emotionally but seeing the impacts on the population’s persistence. It's even harder to see human ignorance, willfulness and indifference lead to the death of so many cats.

SEJournal: Does the issue covered in your story have disproportional impact on people of low income, or people with a particular ethnic or racial background? What efforts, if any, did you make to include perspectives of people who may feel that journalists have left them out of public conversation over the years?

Gross: Though mountain lions, and their right to exist, were the focus of the story, the role of local tribes in ensuring that these perpetually misunderstood and maligned carnivores have a future was a big part of it.

Non-Indigenous people often have a hard time understanding native worldviews, so I thought it was important to feature an Indigenous member of the Olympic Cougar Project.

SEJournal: What would you do differently now, if anything, in reporting or telling the story and why?

Gross: Although I had a chance to talk with people who had run-ins with cougars, as well as those who had enthusiastically learned how to live alongside them, I wish I’d had more time to hang out in different communities and talk to people about their experiences. But that’s true for most stories!

SEJournal: What lessons have you learned from your project?

Gross: It’s always important to put aside your opinions about how the people you’re reporting on handled certain situations or did what they did, but sometimes that’s harder than others. In this case, I struggled to present people who didn't understand how to live with cougars as empathetically as possible and to put aside my own opinions. It’s sometimes difficult to really place yourself in someone’s shoes when you can’t understand how they can think or do certain things. But you have to figure out a way to do that so readers can relate to them.

SEJournal: What practical advice would you give to other reporters pursuing similar projects, including any specific techniques or tools you used and could tell us more about?

 

‘Stay open-minded. Be sympathetic.

Don’t react, even if someone says

something that strikes you as outrageous.’

 

Gross: The only “tools” I used in this story were old-fashioned on-the-ground reporting tools: paying close attention to everything I saw, taking really good notes (aided by a recorder and camera for physical descriptions) and, critically, putting aside my own views on carnivore conflict. We all know you can’t make assumptions about people and their motivations. You have to keep an open mind, especially when you’re reporting on a situation where people’s actions (in this case, aided by government policies) are causing harm. But it’s not always easy. Stay open-minded. Be sympathetic. Don’t react, even if someone says something that strikes you as outrageous. And keep asking questions.

SEJournal: Could you characterize the resources that went into producing your prizewinning reporting (estimated costs, i.e., legal, travel or other; or estimated hours spent by the team to produce)? Did you receive any grants or fellowships to support it?

Gross: I did use a grant ($3,700), which supported travel for me and photographer Michael Kodas. The grant allowed us to spend several days tagging along with wildlife biologists as they visited a cougar den, where they were delighted to find two healthy kittens. We were also able to spend time with residents who had encounters with cougars, including one family who had no idea how to live in harmony with carnivores and others who were doing their best to find ways to coexist.

We also met with the biologists' houndsman, who offered critical insights into the way the big cats are managed in the state. In addition, I was able to sit in on a meeting with Panthera and the Lower Elwha Klallam team that run the Olympic Cougar Project, which gave me a broad overview of the many challenges they face. I also visited a site where an irresponsible landowner illegally dumped their dead goats on public land, not far from where one young cougar had preyed on someone’s live goat.

The grant helped elevate a good story into a great one, thanks to stunning photos that added depth to the storytelling and immediacy to the struggles of the biologists and the cats they study.

SEJournal: Is there anything else you would like to share about this story or environmental journalism that wasn’t captured above?

Gross: Oftentimes, stories about conflicts have clear bad actors. But sometimes there are “regular” people who just don’t understand conditions on the ground. I think it’s important to be as open-minded, fair and sympathetic as possible when you’re covering conflicts for many reasons but, critically, it may help others avoid making the same mistakes, to the benefit of persecuted wildlife.

Liza Gross is an award-winning reporter for Inside Climate News based in Northern California. She is the author of “The Science Writers’ Investigative Reporting Handbook” and has long covered science and the environment, conservation, toxics, ag, public health and environmental justice with a focus on the misuse of science for private gain. Prior to joining ICN, she was a reporter for the Food & Environment Reporting Network and produced freelance stories for numerous national outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Discover and Mother Jones. Her work has won numerous awards, including an Izzy Award, AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award and awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Society of Professional Journalists NorCal, San Francisco Press Club and Association of Food Journalists. You can find her report, “Crowding Out Cougars,” with photos by Michael Kodas.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 29. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.