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Some Facts:
Posted by Mark on Feb 04 2006
* Gasaway has estimated the 20E brown bear population at 475-550 bears in the year 2000 (http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/techpubs/mgt_rpts/brb03mt-n-w.pdf). That is a very high density, especially considering the fact that it is interior habitat, with no salmon runs. Compare that the the estimate of approximately 300 bears on the entire Kenai Peninsula.
* The 2000 harvest was 19 bears. The 2001 harvest was 11. Compare that to the 1999 Unit 14 harvest (21 bears, with an estimated population of just 139-230 bears), or Unit 11 (an average of just 3 to 5 bears taken per year, with no stated population estimate)http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/techpubs/mgt_rpts/mbr01_sc.pdf
* Any and all attempts to lift the guide requirement for brown bear, even in interior sub-units that have virtually no hunting pressure, is met with fierce opposition from the guiding industry and uninformed resident hunters.
* Non-residents, very few of whom have a brown bear hide on their wall, are forced to pay $15K-$25K to hunt brown bear. When faced with such costs, they tend to focus on coastal units that feature larger bears along with high densities.
* Residents who already have a bear on the wall have very little incentive to shoot another bear. The cost of processing will run nearly $2000 (not to mention the cost in money and time to execute a hunt), and there is virtually nothing to do with the rug except donate it or stack them up in the garage (because we only have so much wall space, and one must battle with the wife to display yet another bear on the wall).
* Roughly half of all resident brown bear harvests are incidental to fall moose and caribou hunts. Few actually plan and execute brown bear hunts.
So how does the Department to reliably use harvest as a management tool when they want the harvest to increase?
There has been a gradual loosening of regulations in this particular sub-unit which has coincided with intensive wolf management attempts. The wolf management attempts have been a virtual circus of litigation, including non-fatal birth control surgeries!
The intensive brown bear management has progressed much slower. First it was changed from one bear per 4 years to one bear per year. The tag fee for residents was then dropped. Then the limit was upped to two bears per year. We then saw baiting allowed for the first time for brown bear.
The result has been that hunting pressure and harvests have gone up very slowly.
The sale of brown bear hides from this sub-unit is just another management tool. It will not result in the end of the world, brown bear extinction, bear smuggling, or any of the other fantasies we hear from opponents. Hell, it probably won't even result in much of an increased harvest.
We can expect the legal games to begin now, and this regulatory year is likely the only one that we will see bear hide sales occur (unless the greenies get an emergency ruling on the sale of bear hides, effectively ending it before it begins).
There is entirely too much emotion, conjecture, and opinion regarding this issue, from both hunters and environmentalists. Let this happen and let's see the results. Then we have facts, not BS.
Previous: Selling Bear Hides B_M Jan 31 2006
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