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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Bear permits trimmed

Black bear season gets underway Sept. 1

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 8/30/17

REGIONAL— Fewer black bear hunters will be hitting area woods this fall as the Department of Natural Resources seeks to reduce hunter pressure on the bear population. Wildlife managers agreed to …

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Bear permits trimmed

Black bear season gets underway Sept. 1

Posted

REGIONAL— Fewer black bear hunters will be hitting area woods this fall as the Department of Natural Resources seeks to reduce hunter pressure on the bear population. Wildlife managers agreed to reduce the number of bear permits again this year, to just 3,350— the lowest number in years.

By contrast, the DNR issued 6,000 bear permits as recently as 2012. But years of intensive harvest took their toll, cutting the state’s bear population from a very robust estimate of 28,000 a little over a decade ago, to just 12,000-15,000 today.

DNR officials have been working to rebuild the population, but a higher harvest of female bears than anticipated has slowed the recovery, according to Tom Rusch, wildlife manager for the Tower area DNR. “Even with fewer permits, we’re still taking too many females,” said Rusch. “The population is remaining steady when we want it to be growing.”

While the DNR hasn’t set an overall bear population goal, Rusch said most wildlife managers see 20,000 bears as a reasonable number that provides significant hunting and viewing opportunities without creating too many nuisance concerns.

The growth potential of the bear population is largely dependent on the number of female bears, according to Rusch. But unlike with deer, where the DNR can limit the harvest of female deer, that’s tough to do with bears, where differences between males and females can be tough to see in the field, particularly in the low light conditions when bears tend to be most active around hunters’ baits. The presence of cubs is a good indicator, and the DNR and many hunting guides encourage hunters to avoid shooting sows with cubs to encourage reproduction for the future.

But female bears typically aren’t sexually mature until four years of age, and many females are being shot earlier than that. According to Rusch, analysis of bear teeth sent in by hunters helps wildlife managers assess the age and sex of harvested animals— and the results show that the average age of a harvested female is just three years of age.

Hunting outlook

Despite the lower bear numbers, hunter success has remained high in recent years, and that could be a reflection of some relatively poor crops of wild foods, which made hunters’ baits more attractive. That was particularly true last year, when bear hunter success reached an astonishing 50 percent statewide, with even higher rates of success in northern St. Louis County.

“That was unprecedented,” said Rusch, who predicts a more typical success rate, of 30-40 percent this year. The hunting season gets underway Sept. 1.

The bears are finding more wild foods this season, with decent blueberry and raspberry crops, according to Rusch. Other berry crops, such as chokecherries and juneberries, are more spotty, he said. Clover and grasses, which bears also rely upon, generally did well in the area, thanks to abundant rain. With more food on the landscape, bears likely won’t range as widely as last year and will be warier around hunters’ baits.

Hopefully, said Rusch, that will put less pressure on bears this year and allow the population to take a step toward recovery. “We’re still not where we want to be,” he said.