Activist Adam Sugalski was at a bear weighing station in Lake City the afternoon the hunt was called off in 2015. He and other protestors positioned themselves at stations throughout the state to collect data on the number of bears harvested during the hunting season. Many feared it would be a slaughter, but not to this extent.
Just two days into the month-long hunt, the harvest numbers were concerningly high. The bear quota was set for 320, and Sugalski and other protestors had already counted 298. Sugalski said his friend Chuck O'Neal called to alert the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), and the season ended that day.
"It was kind of a big dice roll with this hunt," Sugalski said, "And it backfired. They did not expect how bad it was going to be."
Florida ended black bear hunting in 1994, but opened it for a month in October 2015, only to end it in two days after 304 bears were harvested. Now, proposals are in the works for one this December.
The discussion comes in the wake of a five-year progress report on the 2019 Florida Black Bear Management Plan. Upon hearing bear management and research efforts of the FWC, commissioners decided proposals for implementing a 2025 bear hunt should be drafted.
The first of three public meetings to discuss the commission's proposal and gather feedback was held yesterday. A final proposal will be presented to commissioners in May.
Michael Orlando, the coordinator of the FWC Bear Management Program, said the goal of the hunt is to begin to slow the bear population growth.
The proposed harvest quota would be 187 bears in total, which was calculated based on the number of females needed to be removed to reach a zero percent population growth rate, according to the FWC's presentation.
While the exact population of black bears in Florida is unknown, Orlando stated that the FWC estimates the population to be at 4,036.
One change that was proposed is the regulation of the number of permits sold. In 2015, 3,778 bear hunting permits were sold, although the quota was set at less than 10% of that. For this hunt, the FWC plans to use a lottery system to issue only the quota number of permits to selected hunters. The application would cost $5, with unlimited entries per person, and the permit fee would be $100 for residents and $300 for non-residents, the FWC said.
Sales made from permits will go to the game state trust fund, according to Morgan Richardson, the director of FWC Hunting and Game Management. In 2015, the sales totaled $376,900. The revenue was put into BearWise funding, a program that aids local governments in purchasing bear-resistant equipment.
The need for further aid in reducing damage caused by bears is a sentiment shared by some who live in bear-dense areas. James Powell, whose home is near the Ocala National Forest, has seen an increase in the number of bear encounters in the area.
Powell has lived in this area for over 50 years. He said bear encounters used to occur about once a year, but within the last 10-15 years, he says he sees them almost daily in his backyard.
"I'd say probably five or six times that they've cleaned out my chicken coop," Powell said. "They just rip the panels and everything off the side of the chicken coop, and then they go in there and get chickens."
Statewide calls about bear interactions have increased almost three-fold over the last 20 years, data shows, although the population is estimated to only have grown by around 1,000 during that time.
Chris Wagoner, a sportsman and a member of the FWC Boating Advisory Committee, attributes the increased number of bear-related calls in part to development in densely populated bear areas.
"Right now, we're not overpopulated with bears," Wagoner said. "We have bear encounters because people are intruding into the bears' territory. People are building, and their territory is actually decreasing, so we're going to have more bear encounters."
A lifelong hunter from the age of eight, Wagoner believes in hunting animals for the purpose of helping to regulate the ecosystem. He also is adamant harvested animals should be used for food, not trophies.
"My dad instilled in me that killing animals is taking the life of an animal, and the only time you should do that is if you're going to consume and eat the meat," Wagoner said.
Although he is not fully opposed to bear hunting, Wagoner does not believe there is enough data to support harvesting bears currently. If there were an overabundance, Wagoner would consider participating in a hunt for the bear meat, which he said is "really good," rather than for the trophies. However, not all hunters share the same mindset.
"I think a bear hunt is more for those that are looking for a trophy than they are for food," Wagoner said.
Sugalski encountered trophy hunters at the check station in 2015. One instance stuck with him. He says he saw a man come in to weigh a bear he had just harvested, and after retrieving it, cut the paws off and discarded the carcass.
"It's an undemocratic, unscientific and immoral hunt," Sugalski said.
Plans for the hunt are not yet set in stone. During the public meeting yesterday, many shared passionate comments about supporting and opposing the hunt.
Issues such as methods of take, the use of hunting dogs, private land hunting and many others will be discussed over the course of the meetings, and the public will have the opportunity to ask questions to the FWC themselves. Meetings will be held this evening and Saturday morning.
"I really want to hear what they have to say – their honest opinion," Wagoner said. "Don't tell me what you want the commissioners to hear. Tell me what you think, as a scientist, about the bear population."
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