HELP THE CALIFORNIA DFG HELP YOU AND DEFEAT HSUS

[outlaw13]

so... i guess that only leaves #6 and as far as im concerned if your dogs cant get r done in the 3 months that the general season is open then your better off sticking to the archery season

What are you talking about, it has never been an issue of someone needing to get er done in the 3 months. It comes down to the fact that overall an increase will help ensure that bear season will stay open until the last sunday in december thus maximizing the amount of time you get to run your dogs on bear.

[BOSS HOG]

Im simply saying if your goal is only to kill a bear then 3 months should be enough but if you want get more time to run bears then lets get a bear training season not kill more. WHY DOSE EVERYONE WHO IS PUSHING FOR THE INCREASE KEEP IGNORING THIS ????

even on the years that the season was closed early , it only closed early by a week or two. if there was a bear training season it would undoubtedly be longer than what you will gain by uping the quota.

[outlaw13]

Im simply saying if your goal is only to kill a bear then 3 months should be enough but if you want get more time to run bears then lets get a bear training season not kill more. WHY DOSE EVERYONE WHO IS PUSHING FOR THE INCREASE KEEP IGNORING THIS ????

even on the years that the season was closed early , it only closed early by a week or two. if there was a bear training season it would undoubtedly be longer than what you will gain by uping the quota.

No one is ignoring the fact that a training season would be longer but right now the current issue we have an ability to change for the better is raising the quota. WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BOSS HOG]

its not hard to understand , i just dont agree with you

and whos idea was it to raise the quota in the first place ?

[livetohunt]

[quote="Dale T"]outlaw13

The HSUS main concern is not the overall bear population, what they do care about are individual bears, thats why Percell has already stated if the quota is raised they will put it on the ballot, so by raising the quota to the 2500 that I believe F&G is pushing for will just like thoughing gas a the fire that HSUS is already tending.

And my 1st question still has not been answered, which leads me to believe know body has a answer!
How is raising the quota going to improve things for Houndsmen in this state?[/quote]



Where did you hear they wanted to take it to 2500? I heard it was going to go up to 1900.

[outlaw13]

i am not a 100% sure but i believe that is was one of the numbers thrown around in the annual bear report. I would also like to add though it wasn't the only number.

[livetohunt]

Thanks outlaw does anyone know the real number? What do they want to take it to? I had even heard at one time no number just go to the last sunday in Dec but not sure where its at now.

[outlaw13]

I did some looking and i believe that one proposal was 2500 with no changes to the archery season. The other one they were looking at was 2000 with archery season for bear hunting starting during the same times that archery season for deer hunting started by each individual zone. This is the one that I believe is being pusher hard for but im not a 100% sure.

[outlaw13]

PROPOSED CHANGES AND ANALYSIS
Section 365, Title 14, CCR:
1. Modify the black bear hunting season by increasing the number of bears that could
be harvested to 2,000 animals before the early-season closure occurs.
Existing black bear hunting regulations (Section 365, Title 14, CCR) require
the Department to close the hunting season on the last Sunday in December or
when 1,700 bears have been reported harvested, whichever occurs first. Existing
bear hunting regulations do not specify a maximum number of bear tags to be
issued. The Department has sold an average of 23,200 bear tags annually since
2002, which was the year that the harvest cap was established at 1,700 bears. The
bear hunting season has been closed early three times since then (2007, 2008 and
2009). During each of these seasons, the total bear harvest exceeded the number
established to trigger the bear season closure. However, this mechanism was
designed to stop the bear season before the harvest reached damaging levels and
not to limit the harvest to a specific number. Despite these early closures, statewide
population estimates have continued to increase (Figure 2-1), the age structure of
harvested black bears is stable (Figure 2-2), the genetic variation in the statewide
population is stable (Brown et al 2009), black bear depredation issues have
remained stable (Figure 2-3), and the bear population has not been negatively
impacted according to the black bear monitoring matrix.
Since the bear harvest cap was increased from 1,500 in 2001 to 1,700 in
2002, annual bear harvest averages 1,756 and ranges between 1,397 and 2,028
(Table 2-1). The maximum positive deviation from the current harvest cap is 328
(2,028 – 1,700 = 328). Hence, a conservative estimate of the maximum number of
bears that could be harvested resulting from increasing the harvest cap to 2,000 is
27
approximately 2,350 bears, which incorporates unforeseen error. This harvest level
is below the modeled maximum sustained annual hunter harvest (3,100 bears;
Appendix 3).

[Dale T]

The 2,500 number was info i got out of Bear Hunting Magazine for May/June under 2011-2012 Western Bear Season Round-up: California-bear hunters are returning tothe front lines with Alternative 2 to increase the annualharvest to 2,500.

From the F&G web site under proposed changes for bears Dated Feb.8, 2011 :

Existing subsection 365(b), Title 14, California Code of Regulations, requires the bear season to close early when the Department receives notification that 1,700 bears have been taken. In addition, the Department is required to send a letter to each bear hunter when this early closure occurs.
The proposed change eliminates the early closure of the bear hunting season, because it is unnecessary and insignificant to the bear population, and the cost of notifying all hunters by mail is an unnecessary expense.

They don't have a number listed just to do away with the quota.

[dogginca]

the dfg also wants to save money they spen alot of money each year sending letters out to teel hunter that bear season is closed i dont know how much but it was alot and maybe that money could be used for the good even if it hunting with houds

[RIFLEMAN]

If I recall correctly, I think DFG told me they spend $14,000 - $17,000 every year that the 1,700-bear harvest threshold is met.

[Dale T]

Hey Josh
Did they make any changes for this year?

[RIFLEMAN]

livetohunt,

And my 1st question still has not been answered, which leads me to believe know body has a answer! How is raising the quota going to improve things for Houndsmen in this state?

I believe this question was answered previously, but I will sum it up here...The higher the in-season closure threshold, the more difficult it is to reach that number. The more difficult it is to reach that number, the less likely the season will be closed early. The less likely the season will be closed early, the more likely the season will run to its natural end on the last Sunday of December. The more likely the season will run to its natural end on the last day of December, the more time and opportunity us houndsmen will have to chase bear. It's that simple.

Where did you hear they wanted to take it to 2500? I heard it was going to go up to 1900.

As part of the regulation amendment process (for every species), the Fish and Game Commission prefers that multiple options be made available to them. The Fish and Game Department strives to provide a number of options that are all justified by the capture of data and application of ecological and scientific principles. In this particular case, the DFG provided options that varied from not increasing the threshold at all to increasing it to 2500 bears.

Thanks outlaw does anyone know the real number? What do they want to take it to?

The Department's preference was 2000.

Technically speaking, DFG believes that as many as 2800-3100 bear could be harvested annually without impacting the population. In other words, California hunters currently harvest less than what is being produced every year, so the population continues to increase.

I had even heard at one time no number just go to the last sunday in Dec but not sure where its at now.

The elimination of the in-season closure threshold was proposed in 2009 and 2010, but was not proposed for the 2011 season.

[RIFLEMAN]

Hi Dale,

Did they make any changes for this year?

No, no changes were made to the bear hunting regulations this year. The proposals were tabled and the three Commissioners present asked the Department to consider managing bears on a regional basis in the same manner deer are managed. The Department is currently collecting data to evaluate the merits of this request. More detail can be found in my legislative article in the recent CHC newsletter.