TODAY, CA Fish and Game Commission Wildlife Resources Committee is meeting. There are two agenda items pertaining to black bear hunting in the state that need your voice. The full agenda is available HERE.
IF YOU CAN CALL INTO THE MEETING TODAY TO COMMENT, PLEASE SEE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW.
Unfortunately, we cannot give accurate times for exactly when the agenda items will be heard, so please get your emails in if you won’t have time to monitor and speak at the meetings.
The instructions on how to join the meeting will be found HERE.
I respectfully request that the California Fish and Game Commission reject the petition seeking to increase black bear hunting in California.
Rather than increasing bear hunting opportunities, the Commission should propose that there should be NO bear hunting without an updated management plan in place – particularly in light of the environmental conditions bears now face in California.
Polls find that a supermajority of Californians reject black bear recreational hunting. The Commission should listen to the majority’s point of view on this issue. We Californians value bears far beyond their use as a bearskin rug on someone’s floor.
More than a dozen peer-reviewed, published studies indicate that hunting bears does nothing to resolve conflicts. Bear hunters are out in the woods trying to find the biggest trophy. Public education campaigns, on the other hand, can work to alleviate human-bear conflicts.
Over 1,300 bears were killed in the 2022 hunt alone. California does not need to allow a second tag for more bears to be killed.
Please personalize to reflect your own voice. Also, do not feel like you have to say a lot. You are encouraged to call even if only to say “I support a management plan that doesn’t include hunting.”
I ask that California’s new black bear management plan consider all the benefits that black bears confer to people and to the ecosystems. Bears are of considerable ecotourism value to local communities and are important to the ecology of their habitats.
According to the National Park Service, in 2021 more than 3 million park visitors spent an estimated $437 million in local gateway regions while visiting Yosemite National Park, supporting 5,600 jobs and $603 million in economic output in local gateway economies. Many people go to Yosemite National Park primarily hoping to view and photograph black bears.
Black bears contribute to biological diversity through their various feeding behaviors. For example, bears spread more seeds than birds.
The new management plan should consider that since it was last updated in 1998, California’s landscape has radically changed for bears in the past 25 years—including the climate crisis that has resulted in a “Megadrought,” the worst drought in 1,200 years, along with record wildfires and extreme heat waves.
All of these factors combined mean that bears must work harder to find food, resulting in record numbers of vehicle- bear collisions, especially for mother bears with cubs.
The management plan should recommend banning archery equipment for hunting black bears. Arcadia residents last fall witnessed and heard a beloved, neighborhood black bear wandering with an arrow sticking from his body and crying in distress. Using archery equipment on black bears is unacceptably cruel because their massive muscles and dense bones make obtaining quick, clean kills very difficult. How many bears are wounded every year and then slowly die from injuries caused by arrows? If the stated objective of hunters is to kill bears quickly and humanely, there is simply no justification for the use of this archaic equipment.
We cannot thank you all enough for the action you take for the animals! Please consider making a donation to help us continue our work.
With gratitude,
Judie Mancuso, founder/CEO/president
Social Compassion in Legislation
