Archive for August 25, 2010
A Letter From Sandia Mountain BearWatch
Editor’s Note: This is a little late in coming, but well worth passing on. The problem of bear-human interactions is complex, and not likely to be solved by shooting the bears or, for that matter, the people. A more balanced and well-researched strategy than that proposed by New Mexico Game and Fish might go a long way toward solving the problem with the minimum ecological disruption possible. For information, see the Sandia Mountain BearWatch web site.
August 1, 2010
Dear BearWatch Member,
If ever our bears needed your help in the last seventeen years…it is now.
The New Mexico Game and Fish (NMG&F) is proposing an incredibly destructive statewide bear hunt starting in 2011 through 2014. They are proposing to kill 733 bears… or more than double that of the 2009 bear hunt (335). They are also proposing a kill limit of 318 sows out of that 733. Sows are the future. This proposed hunt will do a good job of destroying New Mexico’s bears with intervening chaos in our bear population.
Last year NMG&F raised the 2010 bear hunt to 406; that hunt hasn’t occurred yet. But they plan to raise the hunt yet again, without seeing what this year’s hunt will bring. They’ve had approximately 150 bear complaint calls this year along with one mauling of the illegal camper in the Sandias and two Scouts at Philmont Scout Ranch. No one had severe injures, just bites. NMG&F is telling the media that there are just too many bears in New Mexico when in fact; we’ve had a statewide food crisis. Harsh late frosts with no spring rains have devastated the forage that bears need at this time of the year. »» A Letter From Sandia Mountain BearWatch