Sierra Club: We Support Hunts, But Not This One

Grant Gephardt, chair of the conservation committee at Florida Sierra Club, says the organization supports hunts that are necessary to maintain a "healthy, viable population of the targeted animal species," including white-tailed deer and alligator hunts, but it's against the state's upcoming black bear hunt. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioners have decided to hold Florida's first bear hunt in a decade based on "old and outdated 2015 population estimates, and extrapolations of population growth based on this outdated 10-year-old population data," Gephardt writes in a Tampa Bay Times op-ed.

Officials estimate that there are around 4,000 black bears in the state. Gephardt, however, notes that in discussing leading up to the hunt decision, FWC officials said that the population in central Florida's Osceola region "had increased by 92% to an estimated population of 500 black bears." Survey results released this year, however, "show that the bear population in the Osceola region had a significant decline and they estimate the population in this region at 307." The FWC estimate, he writes, "is 40% less than what was presented to justify the bear hunt and setting the number of bears to be killed."

Gephardt predicts that a survey in the Panhandle's Apalachicola region will also show that estimates based on the 2015 data are way off. He says the Osceola survey confirms that "the decision to implement a hunt and the number of bears to be taken in each region was based on bad data. Until data is completed for all regions, FWC should halt the hunt and reassess the number of bears to be taken as scientifically justified to sustain a healthy population."

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Florida banned bear hunting in 1994. The 2015 hunt, the only hunt permitted since then, was halted early after more than 300 bears were killed within 48 hours and hunters, including an FWC commissioner, were accused of killing cubs, new mothers, and pregnant bears, the Guardian reports. Wildlife groups have condemned the decision to allow bait traps, archery, and dog packs in this year's hunt, which begins next month. The FWC is issuing 172 hunting permits, around one for every thousand applicants, but groups including the Sierra Club have encouraged people with no intention of hunting bears to enter the permit lottery.