Spring bear changes on the table!!!

[Bango skank]

Here we go, we will have to be on the ball during the public comment period, spring bear hunting receives more backlash from the tree huggers than fall bear hunting! It will be essential that we get as many people as possible supporting expanded spring opportunity.  have ideas of your own? Let wdfw hear what you want.  the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
 Wildthing@dfw.wa.gov
 Commission@dfw.wa.gov
 Director@dfw.wa.gov

[HoytHunter24]

I am interested to see what they are proposing for changes

[Bango skank]

So am i.  If you have ideas of your own, dont be shy about letting them know via email as soon as possible.  My guess is they are still drafting the proposal.

[Bango skank]

Im going to come up with some more ideas for increasing spring bear opportunity, but for now i came up with this and emailed it in.  Anybody have any thoughts on other units that would be good candidates for spring hunts? Maybe in the cascades?



  I have a few thoughts, or I guess it is a wish list, of potential changes I would like to suggest for the upcoming spring bear reg proposal.

  According to the department, most fall black bear harvest is opportunistic.  Most bears are taken incidentally by people hunting deer and elk who have a bear tag "just in case," rather than by hunters specifically targeting bears.

  Also according to the department, you do not have official population estimates, instead you rely on hunter harvest statistics as a surrogate for population monitoring.  So the greater the harvest, the larger the population is assumed to be.

  So, taking these two things in mind, I would like to suggest as one means of increasing spring opportunity, opening up a spring hunt in unit 204.  If you look at the fall harvest statistics for 2018, you will see unit 204 has a significantly higher fall bear harvest than any northeast unit.  Compare unit 204 fall harvest with the highest fall harvest unit in the northeast:

 Unit 204:  Total harvest 47

            Number of hunters 636

            Days hunted per harvest 84

Unit 101: Total harvest 38

            Number of hunters 781

            Days hunted per harvest 129

  So, based off of those numbers, and your own policy of using hunter success rates for estimating population densities, plus your statement about fall bears being largely incidental take, it is very clear that 204 has a large, thriving bear population that could easily support a spring season.


  I would also like to see spring opportunity opened in unit 113, which has the second highest fall bear harvest in the northeast.

  113 fall harvest statistics 2018:

           Total harvest 32

           Number of hunters 547

           Days per harvest 107

  Now I understand the reason behind not having a spring hunt in 113 is due to it being a grizzly recovery zone.  However, I do not feel that it is a valid, logical reason to keep it closed to spring hunters.  For one thing, it is still open to fall bear hunting.  To think that a person who would mistake a grizzly for a black bear in the spring wouldn't make that same mistake in the fall is absurd.  This is especially true when looking at your belief that most fall bears are incidental harvest.  Unlike fall bear hunters, spring bear hunters are all specifically targeting bears.  This means they are more dedicated bear hunters, and in theory should be better at identifying bear species.  For this reason I believe spring bear hunters would be less likely to misidentify a grizzly than your average fall bear hunter.  Also, we now have the mandatory grizzly identification test, which is required to hunt bear in most northeast units.  So anybody legally hunting bears would have passed the identification test.  Is there an actual law on the books against spring hunting in grizzly recovery zones, or is it just WDFW policy? If it is not a law that needs to be changed, then let's open 113 to spring bear hunting.

  

A couple more ideas to expand spring bear opportunity:

  Open select units in the northeast and southeast regions to otc spring bear, while leaving the more sought after tags draw only.  This way many people would still purchase an application to apply for the more desired hunts, but can hunt otc units if not selected for the more desirable units.

  Another possibility would be to open all northeast units to otc spring bear hunting.  To offset a loss of application fees, you could make a spring bear license / tag a separate license from a fall tag.  So we can purchase a spring bear license over the counter, and if we want to hunt bear in the fall, even if the spring tag did not get filled, that spring license / tag would not be valid for the fall season.  A separate fall license and tag would have to be purchased.  This idea may actually increase total revenue despite the loss of spring application fees for northeast units, and the department would still be collecting application fees from those looking to hunt the southeast or west side units.

   

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I am interested to see what they are proposing for changes

I am a little worried, past performance of WDFW and recent disclosure of permit sales would lead me to suspect a fee increase and size reduction of existing permit areas, forming "new increased opportunity" by offering more permits in same GMU's.

[Bango skank]

I am interested to see what they are proposing for changes

I am a little worried, past performance of WDFW and recent disclosure of permit sales would lead me to suspect a fee increase and size reduction of existing permit areas, forming "new increased opportunity" by offering more permits in same GMU's.

So many pessimists on here   
  Look at the first couple pages of the fall bear reg thread.  Lot of people saying i was full of crap, zero chance, etc etc.  Now its damn near a done deal.

[bobcat]

There should be spring permits in just about every GMU in western Washington. Probably all units in the Cascades on the east side as well. There's no reason not to have some spring permits in all of those units, even if it's only 10.

[justyhntr]

Thanks for the heads up Bango, I like the way you are thinking, have some OTC and maintain  some special permit units for more of a quality spring bear hunt. I've talked with quite a few bear hunters and they all would like to see something like that. This state has plenty of bears and a spring season would have a minimum impact. If the population is 25,000 to 30,000 thousand, WDFW numbers, then we have only harvested a little less than 6% of the population over the last 3 years on average, I don't believe that is even keeping populations in check, I also believe 30,000 is a low number.

[Rainier10]

I would think spring bear in the colockum and yakima units that the elk are struggling in would be a great idea.  Bears hammer the newborn fawn and calves.

[dmoua]

There should be spring permits in just about every GMU in western Washington. Probably all units in the Cascades on the east side as well. There's no reason not to have some spring permits in all of those units, even if it's only 10.

This is a good idea. There are many units that hold a ton of blackbear in Eastern Wa that is not open for spring hunts.

[BreezyBear]

I would think spring bear in the colockum and yakima units that the elk are struggling in would be a great idea.  Bears hammer the newborn fawn and calves.
[/quote

Excellent suggestion! 

[WildlifeAssassin]

Thanks for staying on top of things Bango. I second/third the opening of units in the Cascades even if tags are limited.

[Jpmiller]

I'd love an otc spring bear season. I can't get myself worked up to hunt turkeys so being able to get after a bear in spring gets me out in the woods which is good for everyone lol email sent.

[Bango skank]

I'd love an otc spring bear season. I can't get myself worked up to hunt turkeys so being able to get after a bear in spring gets me out in the woods which is good for everyone lol email sent.

Same here.  I live in the middle of the best turkey hunting in the state and im just not interested.  But id sure love it if i could hunt bear here every spring, then go out and get another bear every august.

[huntnnw]

should be statewide spring bear season otc. I would not like to see certain GMU's open and others closed packing people in units just open all of them and keep pressure where people want to hunt. There is no reason that every unit in NE corner and the blues dont have a otc spring bear season.