The Natural Resources Commission convened this week in Morgantown, West Virginia to finalize the fall hunting regulations. The approved package can now go out for printing and distribution to the hundreds of statewide license agents and be published online. Although deer matters usually dominate the quarterly meetings, the burgeoning black bear population got its turn in the barrel.
It’s no wonder with the bruins at all-time highs and hunters breaking kill records of some sort on an annual basis. However, damage complaints are exceeding the dollar amount of “bear damage” stamp license revenue needed to cover them. No coincidence that just like the record numbers of bears, these damage complaints are just following suit.
In testament, West Virginia hunters bagged a record 2,700 bruins just last year. To put that in perspective, the average annual kill for the decade of the 1980s was just shy of 200! That’s more than a tenfold increase in a generation. The growth curve for bears commencing about with the New Millennium looks like a rocket launch.
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Photo & Story by: Bob Fala
Source: Logan Banner
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