Wyoming Grizzly Hunt – The Details
“There is a grizzly bear population robust and healthy enough to sustain a conservative and regulated hunting season.” -Wyoming Game and Fish Dept.
Would you pay $50 Million to hunt a grizzly bear? Me neither, but the sportsmen of Wyoming have spent that, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish since they started managing grizzly bears. The sportsmen of Wyoming are all of us, anyone who has bought or applied for a Wyoming hunting tag, or fishing license in the past four decades.
The grizzly bear population in Wyoming hit the predetermined objective of 500 bears in the summer of 2001 based on the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s own, excessively conservative estimates. Over the nearly 18 years since, the department and commission have been working tirelessly with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to get all the chess pieces in place to finally delist the bears from the ESA, which did in fact happen nearly eight months ago.
Now it’s up to the Game and Fish Commission to approve the details of which have yet to be completely agreed upon for an upcoming grizzly bear hunting season which could take place as soon as this coming fall. The tentative details of these “draft” regulations are as follows:
A max of 24 bears
will be harvested in a total of 8 hunt areas
. A total of 12 bears
(10 males and 2 females) will be taken in 6
areas bordering Yellowstone and Teton National Parks, and another 12
bears will be taken in two areas outside the bordered parks area. The season will run from September 15th to November 15th.
The grizzly tags will be issued on a random draw
process with no preference points. The cost to apply for a grizzly bear hunt will be $5 (resident)
and $15 (nonresident)
The cost of a grizzly bear tag will be $600 (resident)
and $6,000 (nonresident)
.Baiting will be allowed
outside the 6
park bordering areas, in Area-7
. Only 2 hunters at a time
will be licensed to hunt grizzly bears in 6
of the 8
areas. Once those 2 hunters
are successful, 2 more hunters
will be allowed afield. There will be a mandatory bear education
program for all grizzly bear hunters. No bear shall be taken within 1/2 mile
of a designated highway. Most of us probably agree that the time has come to hunt the grizzly bear in Wyoming. Sound wildlife management under the North American Management Model, the only conservation model proven to actually work in the modern world by the way, clearly proves over and over again that hunting is by far the best tool to generate much needed funds and value for wildlife, which is critical to the long-term survival of big game including but not limited to the grizzly bear.