I live about halfway between Colville and Northport. My wife and I have been bear hunting on and around our property with little success (units 108 and 111). My has now been on two bears that someone else shot or shot at. At this point I'm honestly out of ideas of where I can go within range of...
If you want to get your season back ACT now and register to comment on the March 11th meeting about the rule change to reinstate the hunt.
The following link will you to the commision page to do that. There are also links within that page to leave comments now if you don't have time to make the...
A correction I should make, the 14th is the public comment day (with the 13th being the general discussions that we can view). No, we are not on the agenda for the meeting, but it is an open public comment session. This is the LAST one of those prior to the 21st when the special commission will...
OK looks like we have some great news here.
The special commission is voting on the BHA proposed rule change on the 21st of January. This would reverse the earlier decision on the spring bear hunt. We need as many hunters as possible to show up for the meeting on the 13th to comment in support...
Not in California myself. But I carry a sidearm and bearspray when I bowhunt. I'd seriously oppose a law that prohibits me from doing so (for the 2 legged and 4 legged reasons). The warden can tell a bullet hole from an arrow hole. Why not fine people when they actually break the law we are...
I actually joined instagram in order to reach more people on the subject (and I have avoided that like the plague).
Here is a post by Douglas Boze (not me) in regards to the anti hunting movement to fill the vacant seats on the WDFW special commision with anti hunters. THAT affects more that...
And for good news the Folks at BHA have taken this issue up and are making some real progress. I am a proud member of that organization, and it's because of work like this.
https://www.backcountryhunters.org/wa_spring_bear_next_steps
Keep in mind, that was the initial comment period notes, what is not shown in this data is the hunter comments when the rule was proposed. I might reach out to grab this data in an attempt to clear things up. For those of us who want to pursue the fiscal angle I received this response from WDFW...
In looking at that data I did notice something rather important.
1211 of the 1862 comments started with the exact same phrase
"Dear Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife,
Washington prides itself on its beautiful outdoors and wild creatures, and the"
Several others are reworded...
Sorry, I should have been more clear on my last post. So far it looks like those close to the matter (those of us who keep pestering commissioners) believe that the rulemaking might be re-reviewed in January. This would be counter to what has been previously said publicly as to the rulemaking...
This means we have 2 (or 3 depending on how you want to count) seats that we need to fill from Eastern Washington. Keep contacting Gov. Inslee's office on that. Also, it looks like there will be another meeting in January to discuss the 2022 Spring Season. You need to show up for that meeting...
It's good to hear about a win for traditional hunting methods (Washington isn't doing as well). I have a ton of respect for houndsman, keep up the fight.
My email to JT Austin (seems her voicemail is full)
My name is Ryan Garrett and today I am writing in regards to the WDFW Special Commission and its recent split decision that resulted in the suspension of the 2022 spring bear hunt. I am asking for your help to recommend a hunter...
I applaud you using more of the animal, there is a lot more you can take from the field and make into awesome dishes.
For the liver there are some fantastic pate recipe's out there which all amount to cook the thing medium (still just a bit of pink in the middle), add something for flavour...
I did a record request on this very subject today. The revenue for the spring bear hunt is a matter of public record and I have asked for those numbers. Funny that I went this route during the bear ban in California but forgot this line of reasoning on this one. Thanks for the reminder, I'll be...
Meateater finally picked this up as an article.
https://www.themeateater.com/conservation/wildlife-management/spring-bear-hunts-cancelled-in-washington-state