Yvonne Taft of Essex holds the 232-pound bear she shot in Garrett County on the first day of Maryland's black bear season. All but eight bears taken this year were in Garrett. (Baltimore Sun photo by Candus Thomson / October 26, 2009) |
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Like the five black bear hunts before it, Maryland's sixth annual bruin season ended quietly.
Once the flash point for lawsuits, legislation and protests, the bear hunt has become just another part of the wildlife management program run by the Department of Natural Resources.
Biologists are already crunching the numbers and will be reaching out to hunters for their assessments of the season, which ended Thursday evening when the 68th bear - a 168-pound male - was brought into the Mount Nebo check station in Garrett County by a 15-year-old girl from Friendsville, just up the road.
"I don't see any big changes for next year," said Harry Spiker, head of DNR's bear program. "We'll continue to tweak things and listen to hunters' comments. I'm proud to say we've implemented some of those recommendations."
A record 3,608 hunters applied for permits through a lottery, with 552 hunters being chosen permit holders or sub-permit holders.
Although the bear population is pushing east and growing in Allegany County, hunters seemed drawn to Garrett, where 60 bruins were taken.
Four junior hunters - all locals - were successful. All but one of their bears was well above 100 pounds.
No one came close to breaking the state's two-year-old record of 615 pounds. Wayne Chenoweth of Westminster took the largest bear, a 409-pound male, near the Youghiogheny Mountain Resort in Oakland.
And that bear "had quite a long rap sheet" of nuisance complaints that included a home intrusion in June 2008 and approaching people, including an infant, Spiker said.
"We received several calls from people, saying the bear was showing no fear, even after we adversely conditioned it. And it weighed just 150 pounds then. A woman called to say she was adjusting the car seat in her driveway and turned around to see the bear sniffing within six inches of her baby," Spiker said of the incident at a development along the shore of Deep Creek Lake. "We chased him with dogs and he ran off. ... He was quite the nuisance."
Three other nuisance bears were killed, including one that was tagged 19 years ago and was trapped again and moved last year after a farmer reported that it killed some chickens.
In all, 74 percent of this year's bears were taken on private land.
The target this season was 60 to 85 bears, which, when combined with road kills, puts the annual mortality at 20 percent to 25 percent. The population, about 600 animals in Garrett and Allegany, grows about 11 percent annually.
Spiker said as the population climbs, "that [target] number will likely creep up. But as long as we don't see a spike in vehicle strikes and out-of-season mortality, we don't have reason to make drastic adjustments."
Thinning the population each year ensures the bears have enough territory to roam and a food source to support them and other critters.
Without a hunt, "we would most certainly see more and more encounters with people and more and more vehicle strikes," Spiker said. "Bears consume a lot of calories that other wildlife species need, too. If the bears get to all the acorns first, that means the deer don't get any and the other animals are left without a food source. It throws the whole ecological picture out of balance."
Without the anti-hunting policies of the Parris Glendening administration to fire up the grass roots and with legislation breaking its way, MSA lost a lot of its raison d'etre.
"Nothing bad was happening. There were still little fights, but nothing scary," said Wendy Donahoo, MSA's final president.
Even worse, the founding fathers of MSA neglected to incorporate the organization, something that didn't come to Donahoo's attention until it was too late. When a group of hunters legally took the name for its club, MSA no longer had an identity.
At its zenith, MSA was the umbrella organization for sportsmen's clubs statewide, with a membership of more than 5,000. What did it accomplish?
It lobbied successfully for the bear hunt, Sunday hunting and increased bag limits. It helped bridge differences between archery hunters during the creation of crossbow regulations. And in 2000, when budget cuts closed two state campgrounds in Western Maryland just before the start of deer season, MSA volunteers kept them open.
Now, there's nothing left. And nothing is just what hunters are going to get. As a smart friend of mine said Friday: "Now is not the time to park the car and walk away. Now is the time to keep the foot on the accelerator."
The animal rights community already has taken notice. Here's my prediction: Expect heavy incoming rounds. Expect some serious anti-hunting legislation next session. Expect lobbyists in bear suits in the halls of Annapolis. Expect to lose some hunting opportunities.
And you know what, hunters? You deserve it.
Once the flash point for lawsuits, legislation and protests, the bear hunt has become just another part of the wildlife management program run by the Department of Natural Resources.
Biologists are already crunching the numbers and will be reaching out to hunters for their assessments of the season, which ended Thursday evening when the 68th bear - a 168-pound male - was brought into the Mount Nebo check station in Garrett County by a 15-year-old girl from Friendsville, just up the road.
"I don't see any big changes for next year," said Harry Spiker, head of DNR's bear program. "We'll continue to tweak things and listen to hunters' comments. I'm proud to say we've implemented some of those recommendations."
A record 3,608 hunters applied for permits through a lottery, with 552 hunters being chosen permit holders or sub-permit holders.
Although the bear population is pushing east and growing in Allegany County, hunters seemed drawn to Garrett, where 60 bruins were taken.
Four junior hunters - all locals - were successful. All but one of their bears was well above 100 pounds.
No one came close to breaking the state's two-year-old record of 615 pounds. Wayne Chenoweth of Westminster took the largest bear, a 409-pound male, near the Youghiogheny Mountain Resort in Oakland.
And that bear "had quite a long rap sheet" of nuisance complaints that included a home intrusion in June 2008 and approaching people, including an infant, Spiker said.
"We received several calls from people, saying the bear was showing no fear, even after we adversely conditioned it. And it weighed just 150 pounds then. A woman called to say she was adjusting the car seat in her driveway and turned around to see the bear sniffing within six inches of her baby," Spiker said of the incident at a development along the shore of Deep Creek Lake. "We chased him with dogs and he ran off. ... He was quite the nuisance."
Three other nuisance bears were killed, including one that was tagged 19 years ago and was trapped again and moved last year after a farmer reported that it killed some chickens.
In all, 74 percent of this year's bears were taken on private land.
The target this season was 60 to 85 bears, which, when combined with road kills, puts the annual mortality at 20 percent to 25 percent. The population, about 600 animals in Garrett and Allegany, grows about 11 percent annually.
Spiker said as the population climbs, "that [target] number will likely creep up. But as long as we don't see a spike in vehicle strikes and out-of-season mortality, we don't have reason to make drastic adjustments."
Thinning the population each year ensures the bears have enough territory to roam and a food source to support them and other critters.
Without a hunt, "we would most certainly see more and more encounters with people and more and more vehicle strikes," Spiker said. "Bears consume a lot of calories that other wildlife species need, too. If the bears get to all the acorns first, that means the deer don't get any and the other animals are left without a food source. It throws the whole ecological picture out of balance."
Sportsmen's group no more
Also ending quietly last month was the Maryland Sportsmen's Association, not quite 10 years old, the result of hunter apathy and sloppy paperwork.Without the anti-hunting policies of the Parris Glendening administration to fire up the grass roots and with legislation breaking its way, MSA lost a lot of its raison d'etre.
"Nothing bad was happening. There were still little fights, but nothing scary," said Wendy Donahoo, MSA's final president.
Even worse, the founding fathers of MSA neglected to incorporate the organization, something that didn't come to Donahoo's attention until it was too late. When a group of hunters legally took the name for its club, MSA no longer had an identity.
At its zenith, MSA was the umbrella organization for sportsmen's clubs statewide, with a membership of more than 5,000. What did it accomplish?
It lobbied successfully for the bear hunt, Sunday hunting and increased bag limits. It helped bridge differences between archery hunters during the creation of crossbow regulations. And in 2000, when budget cuts closed two state campgrounds in Western Maryland just before the start of deer season, MSA volunteers kept them open.
Now, there's nothing left. And nothing is just what hunters are going to get. As a smart friend of mine said Friday: "Now is not the time to park the car and walk away. Now is the time to keep the foot on the accelerator."
The animal rights community already has taken notice. Here's my prediction: Expect heavy incoming rounds. Expect some serious anti-hunting legislation next session. Expect lobbyists in bear suits in the halls of Annapolis. Expect to lose some hunting opportunities.
And you know what, hunters? You deserve it.
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Joe,
%u201CThere are about 85,000 Marylanders with resident hunting licenses and over 235,000 Maryland members of the Humane Society of the United States.%u201D
So at 3:1 odds you still can%u2019t bring home the bacon! For the past 10 years the Humane Society has yet to bring anything constructive, cost effective, or honest to the table in efficiently managing wildlife. Instead, you have chosen to put forth visions of Bambi and Boo Boo and paint regal pictures of the invasive King%u2019s fowl, while keeping quiet on creatures named Frankenfish. You have even tried to bribe the DNR with offers of money if they would stop hunting.
Dr. Lamp, need I remind you that those 85k sportsmen provide 90% of the funds needed to protect, conserve, and manage all wildlife in Maryland; not just huntable species. Even the Audubon Society realizes the necessity for managing wildlife for the greater good of the ecological balance of all wildlife.
Sure GonCon has been approved and may have a place in managing some species in some arenas. Now all the Humane Society needs to do is fork out the money for administering the shots (somewhere in the neighborhood of $600/shot).
As for the reported dwindling numbers of hunters, I took 2 more of my sons through Hunters Safety training last fall and just read that, my friend and fellow sportsman, Lou had a class of around 80 new members attend his class. Both of these classes had boys, girls, men and women in attendance. So, the odds may be changing and the dedication to our outdoors heritage has never dwindled.
Maybe you will see some old familiar faces in Annapolis when you try to demonstrate in bear suits!
Regards,
Steve
MD Hunter Alert
mdhunteralert@verizon.net (11/08/2009, 9:19 AM )