In Mount Pisgah euthanasia effort, shot coyote vanished into thicket

Each winter and early spring, coyotes at Mount Pisgah are beginning families in the oak savannas, moving through tall grass and moss-covered trees.

Mates form lifelong bonds, often reuniting year after year. Together, they guard the den, hunt — rabbits, birds and mice — to bring food to their pups. 

These seasonal cycles predate the park. Wildly adaptable, coyotes have largely stayed out of sight even as the 2,215-acre Howard Buford Recreation Area has grown into one of the most visited trail systems in the Eugene-Springfield region. 

That changed during this year’s unusually warm and dry January and February.

In recent weeks, visitors have often spotted a coyote trotting along Buford Park Road, which dead-ends in the North Bottomlands meadows where coyotes have historically denned with their young. The road traces the park’s southern edge for about a mile before reaching the central corridor near the main parking lot and arboretum entrance.

It appeared repeatedly in the parking lot, where Lane County Parks officials pointed to a single explanation: the animal was seeking food from people. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists found pet food in coyote scat, supporting visitor reports that people fed the animals and that coyotes also sought food that had not been thrown away in garbage cans. 

One coyote’s behavior grew so bold that county parks officials and state wildlife biologists determined euthanasia was the most humane option to address a risk to public safety, a press release stated March 18.

Lane County Parks management hired a wildlife management contractor, who shot a coyote with a rifle, county spokesperson Devon Ashbridge wrote in an email. 

“The coyote was tracked to an incredibly dense blackberry thicket from which it did not emerge. The thicket was so dense retrieval was not an option,” she said.

Lane County and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife declined requests from Lookout Eugene-Springfield to interview staff who managed the euthanization. The Friends of Mount Pisgah, a nonprofit organization that works with Lane County parks, also declined to comment. 

Lane County cites as many as 600,000 visits to Mount Pisgah each year. Available funding doesn’t cover all the maintenance and management needs in such a high-demand area. Meanwhile, a new proposal before a parks committee is asking for more trails in the North Bottomlands.

In the absence of agency interviews, Lookout turned to leading researchers to better understand changing coyote behavior at Mount Pisgah — and how management and visitor behavior may need to adapt in response for the years to come.

‘Cheap shot’ 

Lane County manages the land, not its wildlife, and does not track or count coyotes in the park.

It is unclear whether the same coyote that was repeatedly reported was the one euthanized. Officials said an unspecified number of additional animals could also be euthanized if they approached people. 

Ashbridge said that Lane County worked with the wildlife management contractor, who decided to use a rifle because traps wouldn’t be safe in a heavily visited park. Together, the county and the contractor worked to “ensure the process is as safe and humane as possible,” she said. 

But Oregon law on wildlife control defines euthanasia as a humane method when it ends an animal’s life with minimal stress and pain, consistent with the American Veterinary Medical Association Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals. 

Those guidelines consider a gunshot to the head, when it results in immediate unconsciousness, humane. But not shots to the heart, neck or abdomen as they do not reliably cause rapid unconsciousness and may result in prolonged suffering. 

The law also directs agents to “collect and dispose of animals.” The county did not recover the coyote’s body, pointing to a dense thicket as a barrier. 

“However, we are confident it was killed,” Ashbridge wrote, adding she could not speak to the caliber of ammunition used by the wildlife management company. 

Michelle Lute, a conservation scientist turned strategist, called the situation unfortunate and “a cheap shot that obviously didn’t do the job,” if the coyote was able to run or walk away. 

“It’s really irresponsible that someone is wielding a gun that can’t use it properly enough to hit the target in the needed way,” said Lute, executive director of nonprofit Wildlife for All.  

Lute recently visited Eugene in mid-March for the 44th annual Public Interest and Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon. She spoke on a panel about reforming wildlife governance in ways that prevent conflicts before they escalate.

She has authored a peer-reviewed coexistence framework outlining how agencies can better support people and coyotes living in shared spaces.

“You can address the animal’s behavior and habitat and patterns of movement,” she said. “You can address the human side, and it’s often the human side that is creating the problem, and it’s the easier thing to address.”  

Some steps park managers are taking align with her recommendations, such as posting educational signs on kiosks and at trailheads. 

Another primary approach is maintaining a clear buffer between people and new coyote families, especially when coyotes are denning. 

Coyote den is in trail system 

In the past three years, the parks department has seasonally closed the North Bottomlands, where coyotes den and raise pups. Closures began in April in 2024 and 2025, and in February in 2023 — all lasting through early July. 

While Lane County doesn’t manage coyotes, it manages their habitat. The Lane County Parks Advisory Committee is a seven-member volunteer group that advises the Board of County Commissioners on park needs.

At its February meeting, parks manager Brett Henry gave a brief update to the committee about coyote encounters, saying staff had been in contact with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Relocation was not considered an option, he said, because it would likely shift the conflict elsewhere rather than resolve it.

During the same meeting, the Equestrian Friends of Mount Pisgah presented a proposal to establish additional permanent, year-round trails in the North Bottomlands. Nearly 100 people signed a petition supporting the idea, which would make the flat area more accessible for horseback riders and people using wheelchairs, two presenters with the recreation group said.  

Discussion included potential costs that could compete with other projects — as funded through the five-year parks levy for the entire county — and how the proposal aligns with existing guidance, such as the 2018 Howard Buford Recreation Area plan.

Committee members and presenters said that people already use nearly 2 miles of established trails and social trails in between — informal, user-created paths that are not designated or maintained — in the bottomlands, sometimes relying on unofficial maps to navigate them.

Henry mentioned other uses for the area including conservation, noting that coyote dens have been located in the northwest corner of the bottomlands in Thompson Meadow in years past. 

In response, Committee Chair Tim Foelker said, “Well, now you have a different coyote problem.”

The committee voted to support a formal proposal of a trail system in the bottomlands, though they didn’t finalize that through minutes in March, and expect the Equestrian Friends of Mount Pisgah to return for further discussion in April. 

Living with bold coyotes 

People often fear coyotes, especially during denning season, sometimes misreading normal behavior — such as scanning their surroundings — as stalking.

“Coyotes tend to be a little more vigilant this time of year protecting dens, protecting pups, protecting groups,” said Sean Michael Matthews, a conservation biology program manager at Oregon State University’s Institute for Natural Resources.

Researchers say this heightened awareness reflects how coyotes monitor their environment and defend their litter, not a signal of aggression toward people.

Such public education is part of the charge at the Portland Urban Coyote Project. The project, in partnership with Oregon State University, collects sighting reports through an online tool and shares the data with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which has limited resources to track species not protected under laws such as the Endangered Species Act.

The collaboration reflects a broader shift toward proactive wildlife management, aiming to prevent conflict before lethal measures are considered. 

Eugene and Springfield have yet to develop a similar effort, now nearly a decade in place in Portland, largely in part to community members. Over the time from 2016 to 2024, the community has reported more than 20,000 sightings.

The data also show sightings tend to increase in winter, when bare trees and thinner vegetation make coyotes easier to see. 

Increased sightings may also reflect seasonal visibility at Mount Pisgah, said Julie Young, associate professor and director of the Berryman Institute at Utah State University.

“We’re more likely to go on walks in the park if it’s nicer out, and so it could just be more people were out and about this winter, and therefore seeing the coyotes,” she said. “The coyotes may be out that much [each year]. January, February are their breeding season.” 

Young and other researchers interviewed by Lookout Eugene-Springfield said they are not aware of studies directly linking climate change to shifts in behavior during denning season.

Young recently co-authored a peer-reviewed study examining coyote boldness more broadly.

The research found that, compared with coyotes in rural areas, urban coyotes were more willing to approach unfamiliar settings and objects, suggesting animals living near people may become more comfortable taking risks in human-dominated landscapes. And it’s a fearlessness that can be passed down to the next generation, Young said. 

“If you think about how many coyotes actually live in our cities around the United States, and how many people live in our cities around the United States, it’s kind of surprising there aren’t more conflicts,” she said. “That’s because coyotes are smart. They just want to eat and survive and reproduce and not get hurt.” 

Research from Young’s colleagues at her university suggests coyotes experience more than physical pain. 

Their genetics allow them to form long-lasting pair bonds, an evolutionary trait that supports survival but also deepens attachment. When a partner is lost, researchers have observed signs of grief — persistent howling, decreased appetite, heads held low.

And often mates stay together until death.