For the first time in more than a century, it will be legal to hunt bears in three Kentucky counties Saturday. Regardless of what one thinks about the sport of hunting, the fact that there are enough bears in Pike, Harlan and Letcher counties for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to declare a limited, one-day bear hunt is further evidence of the continued success of wildlife restoration efforts in the state.
Black bears — plentiful in the state at the time of Daniel Boone and the other first settlers — were nearly absent from Kentucky for almost 150 years after intensive logging destroyed much of their habitat. About 25 years ago, the black bears started making their way back into southeastern Kentucky, and in the last decade, Steve Dobey, bear program coordinator for the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, said the state’s bear population has grown so rapidly in Pike, Harlan and Letcher counties that a limited hunt is needed to help control the population.
Those participating in Saturday’s hunt must have purchased a bear hunting permit, and the bag limit is one bear per hunter. The entire hunt is limited to 10 bears total or five female bears, whichever limit hunters reach first.
Black bears have become so plentiful in Harlan, Pike and Letcher counties that they have become bothersome. At several apartment complexes near Pikeville, some residents have been fearful of letting their children play outside because of the bears coming by to raid the garbage cans. Bears also have discovered the trash cans at several campgrounds in the region.
The bear population is not just limited to those three counties. A number of bears have been spotted in Boyd County and in all neighboring counties, although they are not plentiful enough to warrant bear hunting — yet.
Unlike the elk the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources has been importing from western states, no special effort was made to restore the state’s bear population. None was needed. Since bears have remained plentiful in the rugged mountains of neighboring West Virginia, it was just a matter of time before the bears rediscovered the hills of eastern Kentucky.
While we have no sympathy for poachers and others who hunt illegally, hunting can be an effective way of controlling wildlife population. Consider this: Without hunters, deer would be a much bigger problem than they are, and while they are beautiful to watch, deer already have helped themselves to so many gardens and caused so many highway accidents that some consider them more of a nuisance than an asset.
Well, we are a long way from having a bear problem in Kentucky that comes close to the deer problem, but we also have little doubt that long before Saturday ends, there will be 10 fewer male bears, five fewer female bears or some combination of the two in Letcher, Pike and Harlan counties — and residents who have had their garbage regularly raided by bears won’t miss them at all.
