They have to leave the timber company hound hunters and snare setters something to catch from April til August...
This is so true Sniper. Most people have no idea that the largest percentage of bears are killed by the timber companies. Where I live, and with the amount of time I spend further west, I get to meet and talk with these guys taking care of business. Bears do a lot of damage and these few guys kill a lot of bears.
I ran into one a few miles behind a gate up in west valley, and we got to talking. This was in June, and he had over 30 in that area alone. Timber companies hate bears, and for the most part, anything that damages their trees...elk, deer and especially porcupines!
The policies in this state, and the individuals in charge are as corrupt as they come. They hate hunters, as much as the timber companies hate bears!
A couple ignorant comments here... Hounds haven't been an option for depredation for years now, and slow/inefficient (comparatively) trapping by government agencies or postage stamp boot hunts are the only options these days. Even in the hound days the annual depredation take was in the neighborhood of 150-200 or so I want to say across the whole state, and I'd be shocked if the government trapping sniffed anywhere near there now. A postage stamp boot hunt in reprod has near 0 chance... Recreational harvest is usually 1500-2000 a year.
Maybe Mongor was talking to a tribal person? I have heard of some companies allowing tribal bear hunting since they don't have to abide by any state rules and WDFW has been so little help with damage.
You'd be hard pressed to find another industry that has a higher percentage of it's workforce that hunts/fishes/camps, etc. To say that the industry hates wildlife is laughable. Maybe some of the investment group folks have that mindset, but certainly not any of the locally owned timber companies that I have been around.
As our deer and elk herds continue to spiral downwards with the overabundance of predators I'm surprised there are hunters that would have any opposition to additional predators being harvested, even if not for the explicit purpose of helping out our ungulate populations.
Back to the core of the topic though, a one bear limit and curtailed season is ridiculous. Look no further than the fact that black bear populations withstood an unlimited bag limit, year around season, and the use of hounds, bait, and traps in the 60's and 70's on the west side. Even had bounties back then. Now after 30 years of basically none of the effective tools of harvest left, to think populations are in any danger is absurd. Clearly politically motivated by the commission.
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