Posted on 12/07/2007 10:06:37 AM PST by george76
Bears that barge in on people in the forest have become enough of a nuisance that more of them should be hunted, state wildlife managers have decided.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, responding to a spike in human-bear contacts and an 11-year-old boy's death in June, want to issue 296 black bear hunting permits for Utah's 2008 spring and fall hunts, a 20 percent increase from the 248 permits offered this year.
DWR officials say the state's black bear population is high enough to warrant the permit increase. Wildlife managers also say bears and humans clashed too many times in 2007 not to take some kind of action in areas where the worst damage occurred.
The Division of Wildlife Resources this year recorded 202 bear incidents - that is, bear encounters that pose a potential threat to public safety. That's nearly double the total from the previous three years combined.
But wildlife advocates and bear biology experts ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
Bear populations have been expanding for the last 30 years.
Man is the dominant creature on the planet. Other species exist only on our sufferance. Yes, we want a variety of species, but they are not people with rights. They are resources.
Sorry. A hungry bear thinks everything is worth eating and any noise less than a 747 on take-off will not scare a bear away if he does not feel like leaving.
Bears are not warm fuzzy gentle creatures. They have only one thing on their pinhead minds: eat. You can not trust them. It would be real good if they were thinned out...
FOREST! Been to Vegas. Ugh. Ok, so it was amusing walking 4 miles down The Strip, but verdict is it's little more than a series of non-sequitors acting as a veneer on a dirty & demoralizing little anomaly in the middle of the desert. Gazing wistfully into the distance, I found the desert far more interesting.
Let’s see, beautiful beaches of barbados or a forest, hmm...
If there's anyone within 100 yards of my family, I'll take the forest.
Some of us DO understand camping and hiking deep in the woods (or desert, or any other rank wilderness). The reality of nature is far more interesting than a continuing series of "how can we get in your wallet" supported by a deteriorating concrete infrastructure.
Er...the idea is you're in a forest, right? Therefore you have a good food supply!
>I would never go near bear country or live there,
if I had to,
I want a gun that is gonna stop it in its tracks.<
Those .50 calibers are real heavy to log around. That’s the only weapon I know of that will stop a grizzly in its tracks without a head shot.
He contacted the state wildlife division and reported the incident. They met him at the location and investigated it as a crime. Once they determined he was, indeed protecting himself he was free to go.
Tennessee and KY have a “bear relocation” program fro problem bears in the Smokey Mt. campgrounds. They are tagged and relocated to another area. If they are caught again, they are on double secret probation and marked for extermination.
One of the areas they happen to relocate problem bears that have lost their fear of humans in also a popular hiking, horseback riding and deer hunting area in East TN.
Kind of keeps you on your toes when you are hiking or hunting out that way
The National Park Service and US Forest Service do the same out west.
These DOW types dump problem bears into Utah from Yellowstone. The bears were repeat offenders in Yellowstone, so guess what...
I'd highly recommend hunting from a vehicle if using a 50.
It will drop a bear-right-there I'm pretty sure.
Check this one.
I hate to nitpick, but isn't it the people barging in on the bears?
The bears are barging into people’s homes.
Indian Reservations do not have this ‘barging’ problem.
The elimination of hunting seasons and traditional hunting practices have allowed the growth of bear populations beyond historical numbers.
The larger male bears drive out the younger / smaller bears from the wilder areas who then break into homes.
IIRC, bear hunting is allowed in CO. It’s way too expensive, though. We need to give free permits and tags to Ozarkians and allow hunting dogs for that for a year or two. That would fix the problem. And some of those folks will eat anything. ;-)
There was a reason why people once knew it was a good idea to kill bears. At the best they consider us competition. At the worst they consider us food.
I recommend something in .45-70.
Colorado had a Spring bear hunting season until the city liberals from California moved in.
Colorado had legal trapping until...
Sheep herders and cowboys took care of predators of all types until the feds / sierra club lawyers started removing the grazing ‘allotments’...
and...
Most working, rural people still know this.
The problem is with city liberals who think food comes from either a box or a can. They do not understand that some farmer or rancher gets up early to work hard...
Where would you place the muzzle or aim if all you had was one shot and a 38 caliber revolver? Best disabling shot or kill shot?
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