Nevadans want to hunt black bears

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1998 | 4:12 a.m.

Lowery has asked the Board of Wildlife Commissioners to approve a black bear hunting season. A report and possible action on the request is scheduled for Saturday in Reno.

"I feel that right now it's a waste of a renewable resource," he said. "Hunters contribute a lot of revenue to the state. There is a demand for any type of big game hunting in this state."

Lowery said bears have in the past been hunted illegally, and others are destroyed by state officials for being problem animals resulting from excessive human contact, but the population has remained healthy.

David Rice, conservation education chief for the Division of Wildlife, said the black bear is classified as a game animal for the purposes of management, but that hunting has never been allowed.

"It does appear that their numbers are getting larger," he said. "Incidents of human encounters continue to increase."

But Rice said the agency will not recommend establishing a hunting season to the board because the last study of the animal is 10 years old.

Carl Lackey, a wildlife biologist for the division, said an estimated 300 black bears live in Nevada, mostly in the Sierra Nevada and also in a few other nearby northern Nevada mountain ranges.

Complaints from homeowners about contact with bears have risen every year since the mid-1980s, Lackey said. Problem bears are normally trapped and released away from humans. The bears also are pelted with rubber bullets and pepper spray on release to reinforce a negative experience with humans.

If bears are harassing livestock, they are trapped and killed.

Wildlife Commission Chairman Bill Bradley said the petition to establish the black bear hunting season was accepted by the board in May so more information about the animal could be gathered by agency staff.

The discussion Saturday will give hunters and wildlife officials a chance to learn more about Nevada's bear population, he said.