There are few more contentious issues than hunting and its regulations, making it a minefield of stakeholder groups and uncertain science. No where is this more true than with cougars, a prized trophy for many resident and visiting hunters, a predator feared by some, but for others a species to be respected as a symbol of wild places.

Balancing these competing demands is the job of BC’s Ministry of Environment. They needed a consistent and tranparent approach to making changes to cougar management.

A process for guiding these decisions was developed by Steve Wilson. It included a decision model wireframe of the stakeholder and scientific relationships, which provided improved insight and could clearly identify the implications of decisions before they happened.

The result? An approach to changing hunting regulations that can balance the concerns of different stakeholders with scientific realities and uncertainties. This provides the opportunity to implement a transparent process that can be understood by stakeholder groups, even if they don’t agree with every decision.