Published: October 31, 2008 07:57 pm      

Interest, harvest increases in Maryland bear season

The fifth modern Maryland black bear season has come and gone.

This one lasted four days. That’s the longest any bear hunt has lasted. The first one was a one-day event.

Here’s something I wish. I wish the Maryland Wildlife Service would quit telling us there is a harvest range when there really is not.

This year the range was supposed to be 55 to 75 bears. The hunt was stopped when the kill reached 56, but, to me, that was not a surprise.

Each year the hunt has been stopped when the lower portion of the harvest range was approached or barely exceeded.

• 2004, harvest target 30, hunt stopped at 20.

• 2005, harvest range 40-55, hunt stopped at 40.

• 2006, harvest range 35-55, hunt stopped at 41.

• 2007, harvest range 50-70, hunt stopped at 51.

• 2008, harvest range 55-75, hunt stopped at 56.

This year’s hunt could easily have continued into Friday and probably even into Saturday.

On opening day, hunters checked in 33 bears. On the second day, Tuesday, Oct. 21, hunters registered another 10 bears.

There were 10 more on Wednesday and three more on Thursday, when the hunt was declared over and done with for 2008.

Had another five bears been killed on Friday, the total would have risen to 61. Had another five been killed Saturday, the total would have climbed to 66, still well within the harvest range. Saturday, however, turned out to have such a downpour, that hunting would have been quite difficult.

I would suggest that for future hunts the agency simply say once the harvest gets near such-and-such a number the hunt will be stopped because, thus far, the kill has never been allowed to continue toward the upper portion of the harvest range.

Forty-six of the bears taken this year came from Garrett County, meaning 10 were bagged in Allegany. The average weight was 178 pounds. Private land accounted for 86 percent of the animals. Of the successful hunters, 59 percent live in Allegany or Garrett counties.

There were 452 hunters (that includes subpermitees).

Here is some interesting data from the bear lottery drawing.

• 3,278 applied for the 220 permits.

• Application fees totaled $49,170.

• 1,845 of the applicants had a preference point from the 2007 drawing.

• 153 of the successful applicants had a preference point from the 2007 drawing.

• Next year, 1,692 applicants will have two preference points and 1,377 will have one preference point.

In spite of my concern about the way the Maryland Wildlife Service stops the bear hunt each year, I have considerable admiration for the agency’s overall management of the hunt and for the legal, emotional, political and biological hoops through which the biologists have had to jump to make bear hunting a reality in the state once again.

Although solid wildlife science was the launching pad for the hunts, there were many other realities with which the wildlife personnel had to deal.

Obviously, with more than 3,200 people willing to send in $15 simply to apply, there appeares to be not only sustained, but growing interest in Maryland bear hunting.

Contact Outdoor Editor Mike Sawyers at msawyers@times-news. com.