Press Release: July 22, 2002

This press release was published in The Dominion Post on Monday, July 22, 2002.

Eastern Cougar Program to be presented at Coopers Rock, Saturday, August 3rd

The Eastern Cougar Foundation will present a program on eastern cougars in the WESTVACO Center at Coopers Rock State Forest near Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, from 4:00PM to 8:00 PM on Saturday, August 3rd. Topics to be discussed include: Do cougars live in West Virginia and elsewhere in the eastern forests, or are they extinct? If they still do live here, how is evidence of their existence found and evaluated? What is the prognosis for the recovery of this magnificent top predator in our eastern wild areas?

At 4:00 PM, Mark Jenkins, proprietor of the Cooper's Rock Mountain Lion Sanctuary, will give a tour of his shelter for displaced and neglected captive cougars. Visitors will meet each cougar individually and learn their stories and the history of the shelter.

At 7:00 PM, Todd Lester will address the topics mentioned above, focusing on West Virginia. He will display casts of tracks, skins, skulls and scats of several wildlife species and exhibit a display board showing sites of verified cougar evidence. Visitors are urged to bring their tales of cougar sightings and any possible evidence, such as track casts, photographs, videotapes, and scats.

Lester is the founder and president of the Eastern Cougar Foundation (ECF; www.easterncougar.org), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to verifying evidence of individual cougars and cougar populations in the East, gaining protection for all wild cougars in the East, and teaching tolerance of cougars.

At 8:00 PM, Bob Wilson of Garden City, Kansas will give a PowerPoint presentation on wildlife "captured" in "candid" moments with infrared triggered remote cameras. Cougar populations are recovering on the Great Plains and are reoccupying former habitat from the Rocky Mountains eastward. They have recently been documented in several midwestern states. Wilson has heard many convincing reports of sightings of cougars in Kansas. He has yet to record a cougar on film but has many delightful shots of white-tailed and mule deer, coyotes, bobcats and raccoons and tips to pass on regarding the use of remote cameras in seemingly bleak terrain.

Chris Bolgiano, award-winning author of Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People and The Appalachian Forest, and Vice President of the Eastern Cougar Foundation, will sell autographed copies of her books. The ECF's new eastern cougar tee shirts will be on sale.

Refreshments will be served, and there will be time to talk with other eastern cougar advocates. To aid the ECF in planning, please contact Helen McGinnis at 304-227-4166 or helenmcginnis@meer.net if you plan to attend.

Camping is available at Chestnut Ridge Park, right next to the WESTVACO Center, and in the nearby State Forest for $17.00 per night. For reservations in the Coopers Rock State Fork campground, call 304-594-1561. There are several motels in Morgantown, and the Maple Leaf Motel is in Bruceton Mills (304-379-4075).

For further information, contact Mark Jenkins at 304-379 or Helen McGinnis at 304-227-4166