History

• Governor Ronald Reagan signs legislation outlawing the sport hunting of mountain lions for five years

• 15-year moratorium on sport hunting lions comes to an end. The Legislature extended the ban twice between 1972 and 1986
• Mountain Lion Coalition is formed to protect mountain lions in California
• Coalition defeats two bills in the State Legislature that would have allowed trophy hunting of mountain lions
• Coalition stops California Fish and Game Commission (FGC) plan to allow mountain lion hunting

• Coalition files for non-profit status and Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation is born
• FGC approves trophy mountain lion hunting over the Foundation's opposition
• Foundation files successful lawsuit challenging the lion hunting decision for the 1987 season
• Foundation sponsors bill in the State Legislature to ban the use of dogs for mountain lion hunting (the bill was defeated after the National Rifleman's Association made the measure its highest priority)

• Foundation-produced study documents the decline in mountain lion habitat in the Sierra Nevada
• Defying a court order, the FGC approves mountain lion trophy hunt for the 1988 season
• Foundation files a second lawsuit challenging the mountain lion hunting regulations for the 1988 season

• 100% volunteer effort gathers 680,000 signatures to qualify an initiative (Proposition 117) to ban mountain lion trophy hunting for the 1990 ballot
• Foundation creates its Adopt-a-Lion program

• Voters approve Proposition 117 that bans mountain lion hunting and creates a $30 million-per-year Habitat Protection Fund
• Foundation-sponsored legal decision that invalidated the California Department of Fish and Game's 1988 mountain lion hunt is upheld by the California Appellate Court
• Foundation produces two traveling mountain lion exhibits. A permanent mountain lions exhibit is created at the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy in Southern California

• Foundation publishes "Preserving Cougar Country"
• Foundation creates anti-poaching campaign
• Three Foundation-supported bills are approved in the State Legislature to provide millions of "bucks for bucks"
• Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation is officially re-named the Mountain Lion Foundation

• Foundation publishes Cougar: The American Lion
• Foundation files a "friends of the court" brief in a lawsuit that said the FGC erred in protecting the California gnatcatcher as a candidate species under the state Endangered Species Act
• Foundation files another "friends" brief in a lawsuit that protects endangered salmon from pumping in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

• Foundation and other groups file a lawsuit to protect an important wildlife corridor in Coal Canyon, between the Santa Ana Mountains and Chino Hills State Park on the border of Orange County
• Foundation helps build the evidence for the prosecution of a ranch in Monterey County that hosted illegal mountain lion hunting
• Foundation loses a bid in the State Legislature to ban the use of dogs to hunt black bears in California

• Foundation publishes the anti-poaching book Crimes Against the Wild
• Foundation defeats legislation to eliminate the Habitat Conservation Fund, which was created in Proposition 117
• Three bills to repeal Proposition 117 are killed
• Bill to eliminate the Endangered Species Ballot Check-off Program is killed
• Successful lawsuit by the Foundation and others keep the Mojave ground squirrel on the state Endangered Species List, which preserves an important precedent for the California Endangered Species Act (CESA)

• The California Legislature places Proposition 197, to rescind the ban on mountain lion hunting, on the November 1996 ballot.

• Foundation launches "No on Prop 197", an extensive public education campaign
• State voters defeat Proposition 197 by more than 16 percent

• Foundation presents first annual anti-poaching award presented to a deserving public official
• Bill to ban use of hounds for hunting bears and bobcats sponsored in the State Legislature (failed after opposition from houndsmen)
• Foundation produces award-winning anti-poaching public service announcements in five languages for distribution to the media
• Foundation wins a legal decision overturning Gov. Pete Wilson's emergency order for a sweeping five-year waiver of the California Endangered Species Act
• Foundation sponsors a successful measure in the State Legislature requiring the California Fish and Game Commission to post decision-making documents on the Internet
• Foundation creates California Legal Advocates for Wildlife (CLAW), a new legal defense program

• Foundation files its first lawsuit challenging the inadequacy of the Habitat Conservation Plan for the North Natomas development in Sacramento

• Foundation successfully amends a bill that would have eliminated the mountain lion hunting ban that was established in Proposition 117
• Foundation successfully petitions the FGC to list the Sierra Nevada Bighorn sheep as "endangered" under the California Endangered Species Act
• Foundation helps California Department of Fish and Game win a $3 million appropriation to write a recovery plan for the species
• Foundation joins with the National Audubon Society to develop and implement the Adopt-A-Species program to teach California's middle school students about endangered species

• Coal Canyon is acquired by State Parks and protected for all time, providing a key link for the safe passage of mountain lions and other wildlife between Chino Hills State Park and the Santa Ana Mountains
• Foundation launches Lions in the Park program to educate state park rangers and docents
• Foundation and California State Parks work together to create a three-panel, color interpretive display
• Judge rules in favor of the Foundation's case which invalidated the City of Sacramento's authority to allow developers to kill endangered species and requiring the USFWS to complete an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that would analyze the effects of habitat destruction on giant garter snakes and Swainson hawks in the Natomas Basin
• Foundation supports the USFWS proposal to designate over 5.4 million acres of public and private land in California as critical habitat for the red-legged frog

• Foundation launches Living with Lions program to educate Californians on how to coexist with mountain lions and to introduce ideas and practical assistance that will protect lions that come into contact with people, rather than punishing them for behaving naturally.

• Foundation organizes, chairs and presents at the first-ever sessions on the conservation of mountain lions at a major scientific conference, Carnivores 2002
• As part of the Living with Lions program, Wolf Creek and Indian Valley 4-H club members and the Foundation celebrate 4-H's 100th birthday by completing the construction of the first cougar-proof pen designed specifically to protect goats and domestic animals from mountain lion depredation
• Living with Lions program working with local 4-H and FFA groups build first cougar-proof pen in Calaveras County, California
• Working with the California Oak Foundation, the Foundation sues the Department of Forestry demanding they protect oak woodlands, which provides excellent mountain lion habitat
• Foundation, with other conservation groups, files suit in federal court and successfully stops the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) from proceeding with an elk population study that involves killing at least half the mountain lions in two regions of Oregon

• Foundation launches On-the-Edge program in Southern California Santa Monica Mountains
• Foundation organizes, chairs and presents at the first-ever conservation session at a Mountain Lion Workshop, a scientific conference on mountain lions held by state wildlife agencies held approximately every four years