No telling bud. It could be that where they HAD been had gotten overrun by Yotes being that is their main competitor in the food chain. They survive on primarily the same diet. If you guys are dropping the yote population down then that means less competition for the cats. Aint nature fun! I know in PA I used to see quite a few cats even though they had pretty low numbers statewide but when the yotes started coming back hard in PA I started seeing way less of the cats. Started killing a lot of yotes and started seeing more cats. Pretty sure PA's bag limit is still one cat per year. Seem's to be working out for them as they have a fairly stable cat population.

As far as the "powers that be" goes, like pretty much every other Government org. in this state, I'm sure it's corrupt but I highly doubt a Bobcat population increase would be high on their list. While an adult cat could take a yote on fairly easily and cut it to shreds, they tend to only fight them if cornered so bringing their population up to help with the yote population explosion here would be fairly pointless. And it is VERY rare for a Bobcat to take a fawn unless it is newborn. Taking on an angry Momma Doe would pretty much seal the fate of a Bobcat. Too much risk for the slight possibility of reward.