A slim majority of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission has proposed ratcheting down on hunting cougars.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday embraced claims by environmental groups that the state’s bear and cougar hunting rules were arbitrary and unscientific.

The 7-2 vote rejected the recommendation of wildlife managers and Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind. The commission ordered the department to draw up new hunting rules for the 2024-25 season.

“I’m so relieved to see the commission side with the science and act for cougars and bears,” Center for Biological Diversity carnivore conservation director Collette Adkins said in a statement Monday.

Environmental groups petitioned the commission to repeal bear and cougar hunting rules that the commission passed in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

The commission adopted the rules in response to complaints from rural residents that cougars and bears were becoming an increasing menace to people, pets and livestock.

The environmental groups claim the hunting rules are jeopardizing the state’s bear and cougar populations, a point disputed by the department’s wildlife managers.

The new rules liberalized harvest limits and expanded seasons, but haven’t had much of an effect, Fish and Wildlife Game Division Manager Anis Aoude said.

“To say these regulations increased harvest is a fallacy,” Aoude said.

The cougar rule allows hunters to kill up to 373 cougars a year, which Aoude called a “worst-case scenario.”

Hunters killed an average of 203 cougars a year in the five years before the rule passed and 204 cougars a year since the rule passed, according to Fish and Wildlife records.

More bears were killed, but hunter success rates went up more in areas unaffected by the rule changes, Aoude said.

“Even though there was an increase in (bear) harvest, little of it can be attributed to the regulation changes,” he said.

Susewind said the department agrees it should examine bear and cougar management, but said granting the petition to write new hunting rules for next year will slow down the review.

“To me it’s pretty clear, the rule change hasn’t been a big impact,” he said. “Why are you in a hurry to change this?”

Commissioners Jim Anderson and Molly Linville, who were on the commission when the rules were adopted, voted to deny the petition.

Commissioner Barbara Baker said the hunting rules were adopted to placate rural residents and voted with the six commissioners appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee since 2020.

Commissioner Melanie Rowland said the petition from environmental groups “reads like it could end up being a legal brief.”

“It’s high quality, and I really prefer not to see litigation while we’re pursuing a better path for cougar and bear management,” she said.

Eight groups signed the petition. Rowland cited the Center for Biological Diversity, Washington Wildlife First, the Humane Society of the United States and the Mountain Lion Foundation.

“That is a significant segment of our population,” she said.

The catalyst for the rule changes was a Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting in 2019 in Spokane. Rural residents said they fear for the lives of children.

In their petition, environmental groups said Fish and Wildlife leaders missed an opportunity to educate the public and bowed to a small and vocal group by adopting unscientific policies.