https://www.sacbee.com/news/ca...rticle248775710.html



CALIFORNIA
California would ban bear hunting under new legislation, even as wild population rebounds

BY RYAN SABALOW
JANUARY 26, 2021 11:32 AM, UPDATED 7 HOURS 52 MINUTES AGO


A San Francisco Democrat has introduced a bill that would ban black bear hunting in California, despite a bear population at its highest levels in decades and repeated conflicts with the wild animals in Lake Tahoe and other high-tourist areas

On Monday, state Sen. Scott Wiener introduced Senate Bill 252, “The Bear Protection Act” sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States.

The bill would ban California’s sport hunting season that now allows for 1,700 bears killed in the fall and early winter. Under the bill, bears could still be killed under a permit to protect public safety, livestock and for scientific research.


“Over the past few years, black bears have faced unprecedented habitat loss due to climate change and wildfires, and continued sport hunting in California makes survival an even tougher climb,” Wiener said in a news release announcing the bill. “It’s time we stop this inhumane practice once and for all.”

The legislation is likely to create another pitched battle between the considerably large and vociferous animal-rights and hunting communities in California, which itself features a now-extinct California grizzly bear on its flag and is home to tens of thousands of square miles of wilderness hunting grounds stretching from Southern California to the Oregon border.



Wiener cited public opinion polls showing that a majority of Californians support a ban on hunting bears, and he argued that hunting has no effect on population sizes near communities where bear conflicts are common, because hunting is impractical or off limits in those areas.

Locally, around Lake Tahoe, bear populations have grown to some of the largest densities in the country, and bears have been aggressively breaking into vacation homes, and attacks on people happen from time to time.

The bill’s introduction comes as California’s statewide bear population has more than doubled in the past four decades. Black bears are not endangered. State officials estimate that in 1982, the statewide bear population was between 10,000 and 15,000 bears. The black bear population is now “conservatively estimated” to be between 30,000 and 40,000 animals, state officials say.

California’s limited bear-hunting season has had no impact on this statewide population growth.

In 2011, with bear populations growing, the state proposed increasing the state’s annual harvest quota to 2,000 bears, but the plan was scuttled after fierce opposition from the state’s influential cadre of environmentalists and animal rights activists. The next year, the state legislature banned hunting bears with hounds in a bill pushed by animal rights activists who called it barbaric.



The hound-hunt ban took effect in 2013, and dramatically reduced the number of bears hunters killed in California.

CALIFORNIA NOT HITTING HUNTING QUOTA

The way California’s bear season works is an unlimited number of licensed hunters are allowed to buy a $49.42 permit known as a “bear tag.”

If they kill one, hunters are required within one business day to bring the skull to a Department of Fish and Wildlife office to have the head examined by a state biologist. The bear kill is included in the state’s harvest tally. If hunters hit the 1,700 quota, the season is immediately canceled before its late December end date. A California game warden can cite a hunter if he or she shoots a female bear with cubs.

Since the ban on hunting black bears with hounds, the state’s hunters haven’t come close to hitting the 1,700-bear kill quota.


Last year, the season ended on Dec. 27 with the state’s 30,394 bear-tag holders killing just 919 bears.

Supporters of bear hunting say Wiener’s bill, if it should pass both the state Assembly and Senate and be signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom later this year, would deprive the state of a key source of funding for California’s wildlife habitat. And hunting associations say it undermines the state wildlife agency’s campaign to boost declining rates of hunters.

The state’s 235,000 licensed hunters play an outsized role in supporting habitat and wildlife. In California, around a quarter of the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s budget is paid through hunting and fishing licenses and taxes on hunters’ firearms and gear.

Bear tags generated $1.39 million in revenue last year for the state’s wildlife agency. The money goes into a big game management fund that supports habitat preservation for bears and other species including deer, elk, pronghorn antelope and bighorn sheep.

“Those dollars are used for (habitat) projects, research and things that are critically important to the management of all big game species,” said Bill Gaines, a lobbyist for various hunting causes. “So this would have serious impacts across the board.”


IS BEAR HUNTING A BLOOD SPORT?

Animal rights activists often describe bear hunting as a cruel bloodsport whose sole goal for hunters is trophies, but bear meat is a delicacy for many hunters.

Because of their varied diet of animal flesh and vegetable matter, bear meat is similar in flavor and texture to pork, and bear fat is often used for pie and pastry crust.

Male bears are often called “boars” and females are called “sows,” which is traced back to their pig-like flavor and eating habits.

Wiener’s legislation is the latest bill that’s sought to protect charismatic predators and big game species from what activists describe as trophy hunting.


Last year, the Legislature passed a bill that would prohibit hunters from importing trophies such as lions and elephants from Africa.

Gov. Newsom was unable to sign the bill due to it not making it to his desk before a legislative deadline. His predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown, vetoed similar legislation in 2018, saying the ban “would be unenforceable.”

In 2019, the state legislature banned bobcat hunting. The same year, Newsom signed a bill banning recreational fur trapping.

In 1990, Californians voted to permanently ban hunting of mountain lions, despite sport hunting for cougars not being allowed since Gov. Ronald Reagan signed a moratorium in 1972.

Bears in California will just be hunted by professional trappers. Same as how the state manages lions today.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
Bears in California will just be hunted by professional trappers. Same as how the state manages lions today.

Our bear population is busting at the seams. We see bears in places never before seen. I hunt deer just east of the Sacramento area, and we see bears down near Folsom Lake, which is on the edge of town.

The loons under the dome in Sacramento are just like the loons in DC. It has nothing to do with science, it has everything to do with a radical leftist, animal rights agenda.

Same as when Colorado government fools outlawed use of dogs and bait to hunt bears! In a year or two bears were over running rural towns.
When up there elk hunting just after rule changes, bear were a major nuisance, even breaking into houses in Colorado City.

Government is a Fools Paradise.

quote:

Our bear population is busting at the seams. We see bears in places never before seen. I hunt deer just east of the Sacramento area, and we see bears down near Folsom Lake, which is on the edge of town.

Yep and you need more of them.

City people do have strange ideas

Mark my word but it only a matter of time until most hunting in CA is banned. When the Dems have a supermajority in the legislature and a Dem governor, the end result inevitable....

Coming to a State near you !!! As old Chucky Schumer said we own it all now ! Nothings off the table !

Well Hell, might as well import some brown bear off the salmon streams in Alaska and turn them loose in the area of the statehouse .... that way the animal loonies can get an up close look.

Missouri is getting ready to OPEN black bear for hunting.

I grow weary of the big city democrats trying to control folks that live in rural America.

quote:

Originally posted by JBoutfishn:
I grow weary of the big city democrats trying to control folks that live in rural America.

Took you this long.

I have grew tired of there crap decades ago.

As population rebounds? When did it drop? Fortunately the bill has been killed. No doubt it will resurface so you bear hunters better get to it while you can.

quote:

Originally posted by JBoutfishn:
I grow weary of the big city democrats trying to control folks that live in rural America.

I lived in Etna 50 or so years ago, there was a problem with black bears climbing the spindly apple trees at the time.
There was a 2-bear bag limit at the time if I remember it right, and a few people ate them.

quote:

I lived in Etna 50 or so years ago, there was a problem with black bears climbing the spindly apple trees at the time.
There was a 2-bear bag limit at the time if I remember it right, and a few people ate them

I would rather eat a good bear than any other wild game.