American women are increasingly unwilling to produce children.
The same can’t be said for Ursus americanus sows.
You’ll search the websites of “environmental” organizations in vain for a mention of the status of the nation’s black bears. Professional eco-alarmists aren’t in the habit of disseminating good news — it’s bad for business.
While black bears weren’t brought to the cusp of extinction in the United States, they suffered from the shoot-on-sight protocol Americans followed during the colonial and early-Republic eras. Few cried when the big beasts vanished from the Nutmeg State around 1840. The last one “in Iowa was found near Spirit Lake in November of 1876.” At the start of the 20th century, “bear populations were nearly eliminated from lands that are now within” Shenandoah National Park.
Yet trends have a pesky habit of ending. Even reversing. From New England to the Midwest to the Sunshine State, black bears are so numerous, well, they’re becoming something of a problem.
Taxpayer-funded conservation contributed to the bears’ comeback. But substantial credit belongs to an eco-catastrophe that never arrived. Sorry, flower children, but the data are clear: Paradise didn’t get paved. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Inventory, in 2017, a mere 5.98 percent of the nation’s land area was developed. Better still, ungrazed forest’s portion of total U.S. acreage is slightly increasing, up from 17.72 percent in 1987 to 18.43 percent three decades later.
A significant cultural shift offered black bears another boost. As both a share of the population, and in actual number, hunters declined.
Intelligent, with dog-shaming olfactory systems and the skills to adapt to all sorts of terrain and food sources, black bears seized the opportunity. Here’s a brief rundown of how they’re faring, from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico:
• Wildlife bureaucrats in Vermont estimate that the “population of black bears has reached a five-year high of 7,000 to 8,500.” That’s somewhere between three and six times the likely population in the early 1970s.
• On October 1, Connecticut legalized the killing of black bears in self-defense. (And to protect agriculture.) In August, The New York Times reported that “some residents want a full-fledged bear hunt, allowed in almost every nearby state.”
• Maryland reestablished bear hunting in 2004, and last autumn, a Garrett County woman bagged a 643-pound male — the largest in state history.
• The North Carolina Bear Hunters Association is seeking to “expand the mountain bear hunting season by nine days.” Given that the season’s “been the same since the 1970s,” and since then, the number of mountain-region bears has expanded by a factor of eight, it’s a reasonable request.
• Black bears have “begun repopulating” Iowa. Counts “in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri are stable to increasing,” so immigrants value prime habitat in the Hawkeye State. Legislators in Des Moines are considering a bill authorizing “the Department of Natural Resources to monitor the population … and set up a hunting season if the population needs to be controlled or reduced at any point.”
• Louisiana’s black bears “had all but disappeared in the 1950s and 1960s.” In the 2020s, a “resurgence” has “sparked discussion among state officials about a hunting season.” (A farmer “said the bears seem attracted to diesel fuel and will chew fuel lines on farm equipment, sometimes causing leaks that see thousands of dollars of fuel spilled onto the ground.”)
• Black bears were “removed from the Florida state threatened species list on August 24, 2012.” In the Panhandle, Franklin County Sheriff A. J. Smith wants the problem of ursine-human close calls “to get solved.” He, and many others, are open to — if not enthusiastically supportive of — legal hunting. Legislators are also weighing bills that would sanction “the use of lethal force against a bear without a permit if a person believes such force is necessary to protect themselves or their property.”
Black bears certainly possess the proper toolkit to turn you into a Hot Pocket. They’re fast, despite their girth, and have claws and teeth capable of tearing a man to shreds. But there are very few documented cases of black-bear aggression. Even sows with cubs seem more inclined to run, or climb a tree, than attack. (Their grizzly cousins aren’t so docile.)
It won’t be long before America’s black bears begin to stir from their winter slumber. In 2024, you might get the pleasure of seeing one. Be sure to inquire if he or she is worried about the “climate crisis.”
Gave me a good chuckle!