Loophole allows "illegal" bear hunt with dogs--King 5 Story

[JeffRaines]

Me personally, I know the huggers are never going to allow baiting or hound hunting again... so it would be really nice if they want ahead and nixed the hound hunting that is allowed currently and opened up more spring bear opportunity... maybe separate OTC tags for certain units?

[hunter399]

Me personally, I know the huggers are never going to allow baiting or hound hunting again... so it would be really nice if they want ahead and nixed the hound hunting that is allowed currently and opened up more spring bear opportunity... maybe separate OTC tags for certain units?

I agree hound hunting should be for public safety,not property damage,more tags can be given untill a quota has been reached ,they don't seem to have a problem doing it this way for cougar.

[CementFinisher]

hunters at other hunters throats. sickening!

[JeffRaines]

hunters at other hunters throats. sickening!

You know as well as I do that once people see this the tree huggers are going to call for it to be banned like the rest, and looking at the past it seems like they almost always get their way so you know how its going to go... when(not if) it happens, hopefully it will open up more opportunities for spring bear hunting for the rest of us.

[GBoyd]

It really bothers me that the agency is allowing this much population reduction. Some amount of crop damage from wildlife should be expected. I don't see any reason to go kill a ton of bears every time Weyco complains about some dead trees.

Remember, public corporations have no interest in wildlife. It costs them money to allow animals on their property. If the shareholders got their way, they would remove all the bears, deer, and elk. The reason the animals exist on that land is that we have laws protecting them. It's completely within our rights to obligate them to tolerate a little more peeling. Especially because bears are OTC and open season for half the year! It's not an easy hunt, but plenty of bears are killed within the recreational hunt.

WDFW should drastically reduce the damage permits and restrict them to the most extreme cases.

[Alan K]

Before spring bear seasons would be allowed on their property, I'd bet land owners would utilize supplemental feeding. Both cannot be used at the same time for obvious reasons, and feeding has been proven more effective at limiting damage. Depredation permits are generally sought to target the bears that insist on peeling despite having access to unlimited feed.

The purpose of these depredation permits are not in any way to replace recreational hunts, it's to reasonably limit property damage.

I know part of the OP's gripe is over free access, and by some of the posts it looks like some people think land owners are replacing 'lost' general season harvest with depredation harvest but that just isn't the case looking at the numbers. Since access permits became prevalent depredation harvest has actually steadily declined.

[buglebrush]

Peeling can be a huge problem.  I've found entire stands if toner decimated.  Either way I am super pleased to hear they are killing bears.  This state needs to kill way way more bears!   

[grundy53]

Peeling can be a huge problem.  I've found entire stands if toner decimated.  Either way I am super pleased to hear they are killing bears.  This state needs to kill way way more bears!   

Agreed

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[headshot5]

Peeling can be a huge problem.  I've found entire stands if toner decimated.  Either way I am super pleased to hear they are killing bears.  This state needs to kill way way more bears!

I agree. 

[HighCountryHunter88]

what everyone seems to be missing is the point that boot hunters cannot kill enough bears in a certain amount of time in a specific local... if they opened up a couple square miles around the damage open for everyone, everyone would be complaining about how crowded it is and how its a joke.. Hounds are the best tool for the job.

also, meat, hides, ect. are all to be turned in for each kill. its not going to waste.

[fireweed]

Do you not understand why the timber company's greatly prefer letting in a few select guys rather than a pile of boot hunters to kill off the amount of bears they need killed?

Of course timber companies greatly prefer it, but bears are an asset of the people and  are supposed to be managed by the state for the benefit of everyone in the state, even if big timber is inconvenienced.   

[singleshot12]

Debate about it all you want. The fact is it is a political game like everything else. The license buying boot hunter gets the short end of the stick again. This state is backwards and keeps getting worse. Huggers with their ill minded agenda's and corporate tree farms that only care about profit

[Special T]

Debate about it all you want. The fact is it is a political game like everything else. The license buying boot hunter gets the short end of the stick again. This state is backwards and keeps getting worse. Huggers with their ill minded agenda's and corporate tree farms that only care about profit

You would think that the department would want to sell a couple hundred more spring bear permits to bring in some more cash...

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[singleshot12]

You would think!  But everything is so damn political that logic is gone with the wind.

[seth30]

My Ex wife's coworkers husband did that for the timber companies I believe.  When he told me about it, I thought it was all BS and trying to sound cool.