Wednesday, June 03, 2009
DGIF nixes separate bear license
However, the board liberalizes bear hunting regulations across much of Virginia.
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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RICHMOND -- Hunting bears won't cost Virginians an extra premium, at least not yet.
The board of directors of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has rejected a proposal to remove the bear tag from the big game license and create a separate bear license.
The proposed special bear tag was among dozens of hunting regulations issues the board considered Tuesday during a meeting at the agency's headquarters.
Among other items, the board approved a number of changes to deer hunting regulations, adopted expanded bear hunting seasons, touched on turkey hunting rules and even expanded some small game hunting opportunities.
Deer-related moves included eliminating the single buck limit during the early muzzleloader deer season west of the Blue Ridge, adding an early season youth-only firearms hunt, liberalizing either-sex hunting seasons on private land in many counties, and tightening either-sex regulations on public land in some areas.
Members of the Virginia Bear Hunters Association, a group of hunters who use hounds, had asked for the bear license when the suggested changes were made in February.
The board had forwarded the proposal to get a feel for public sentiment, and the issue dominated public discussion during the public comment period.
While houndsmen said the license could raise $300,000 or more for the agency and elevate the status of black bears, critics accused the houndsmen of wanting to hoard bears for their season and said the change wouldn't be fair without reducing the cost of the resulting deer/turkey license.
Bob Ellis, director of the agency's Wildlife Division, said his staff didn't recommend adopting the license.
But he said the agency is reviewing its license structure, leaving open the possibility that the issue of a separate bear license could come up again.
As usual, deer regulations were tweaked to increase pressure on whitetails where populations are strong, with either-sex hunting days expanded in 48 cities and counties, mostly on private land.
Either-sex hunting days were reduced on deer-poor public lands in 19 counties west of the Blue Ridge.
The board also approved a DGIF staff request to increase the number of tags on a deer bonus permit from two to six.
The firearms deer hunting day for supervised youth age 15 and younger will be the final Saturday in September in all counties except three in Northern Virginia that already have an early antlerless-only firearms season.
The elimination of the single-buck early muzzleloader season limit addresses a long-standing complaint from many hunters who said it was unfair to limit hunters west of the Blue Ridge while allowing eastern hunters to use their buck tags at any time.
While unanimously defeating the proposed bear license, the board approved liberalized bear hunting regulations across much of the state.
DGIF biologists say the expansions are needed to reduce a bear population they conservatively estimate has grown by at least 37 percent in certain areas since 2001.
Bear season expansions include adding two weeks to the early archery bear season, so the season overlaps with the deer early archery season, while muzzleloader and firearms seasons were expanded in a number of counties.
Ellis said the moves are hoped to increase the kill by 60 percent in the designated counties in an area west of the Blue Ridge that runs north from Roanoke along the Interstate 81 corridor to the upper border of Shenandoah County.
The board rejected a proposal to add a day to the early segment of fall turkey season, but approved a regulation that will require all spring gobbler hunters to report their kills electronically starting in 2010.
The board also expanded the spring squirrel season to private lands and additional wildlife management areas, and expanded fox squirrel season to several counties on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge.
