Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994 TAG: 9405290119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club has told the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries there are numerous warnings the bear population may be experiencing excessive hunting pressure of a high-tech nature.
The annual bear kill reported by hunters has set a record eight of the past 10 seasons, reaching a high of 789 last season.
The Sierra Club, says Roger Diedrich, its conservation chairman, is alarmed the 1993-94 kill may be higher than the annual recruitment.
"We request that you take immediate action to substantially reduce and effectively limit the legal kill of black bears," said Diedrich, who lives in Fairfax.
On the other side of the issue, organized bear-hunters, represented by Tom Evans of Richmond, believe the growing kill figures are the result of a steadily increasing bear population, not overhunting.
"I believe the preservationists' view right now is not supported in science," Evans said. "We have a bear population that is verging on being declared a nuisance."
Biologists who represent the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries express confidence the bear population in Virginia is stable or expanding and that hunting regulations are sufficiently conservative. But department officials admit there are gaps in their bear data.
With that in mind, the agency has launched the five-year Allegheny Bear Study, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, the National Biological Survey and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences at Virginia Tech. The game department's funding commitment, not counting personnel time, is just over $500,000. Those will be dollars provided by sportsmen.
A key objective of the study is to provide an accurate estimate of how many bears are in Virginia, which is a prudent starting point for preservationists and hunters. If you use the figure 3,000, as the Sierra Club has, then an argument can be made that last year's legal bear kill was higher than the reproduction rate. But if you use 4,000, which is just as plausible at this point, that wasn't the case.
"I use 3,500 as a conservative estimate, and I rather imagine there are a few more bears out there than that, and I think our long-range research will show that," said Bob Duncan, chief of the game department's game division.
The well-being of the bear population and the role of hunting isn't a new debate, but it has assumed renewed vigor the past two seasons as a result of Virginia's new bear-chase season. Hunters claim the chase season, which allows them to pursue bear with hounds as long as they don't shoot the bears, is akin to catch-and-release fishing. It provides recreation with no impact on the bear population.
Protectionists, and even some hunters, say that isn't the case.
"A bear-dog training season adds stress to a bear population already under stress," Diedrich said.
Said Duncan, "There is so much misinformation."
An example is the fact opponents of the chase season even have used polar bear data to combat the pursuit of black bears, he said.
"A bear is big and sort of cuddly, and everybody relates to it," Duncan said. "It is on the high end of the food chain and it appeals to people."
That makes it an easy target for those who oppose hunting, he said.
"I think the bear researchers and managers are very much cognizant of the fact that bear seasons are being challenged everywhere," Duncan said.
As the new study is launched, Evans may have the best advice.
"I think everybody should step back and listen to the biologists," he said.
by CNB