UP Bear permits may increase

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Sports - Grand Rapids, The Grand Rapids Press » Bear hunting in Upper Peninsula could increase, but during slow season

By The Grand Rapids Press

March 07, 2010, 7:20AM

Victor Skinner | The Grand Rapids Press


LANSING -- Hunters might get more opportunity to shoot bear in the Upper Peninsula this fall.

AP File Photo

Wildlife officials are proposing 1,400 additional bear licenses in the Upper Peninsula, but they also expect the same number of bears to be harvested.The Michigan Natural Resources Commission this week is considering a recommendation to issue 1,400 more bear hunting licenses in the U.P., most in the third-hunt period in September.

That recommendation and other minor changes will result in about the same bear harvest as 2009, when hunters killed 2,026 black bear, wildlife officials said.

“In the third hunt period, there will be more licenses and more opportunity, but the success rate is lower,” said Adam Bump, bear specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Bump said the department is working to ensure an equal number of bears are taken in all three of the Upper Peninsula’s hunt periods.

The move also is intended to accommodate a legal issue “with lifetime license holders who felt they were entitled to get a bear license every year,” Bump said.

Because hunter success rates are around 10 percent for many U.P. management units during the third period, it takes many more licenses to harvest the same number of bears as earlier hunts, Bump said.

DNRE officials are proposing to issue 10,962 U.P. bear licenses in 2010, up from 9,563 last year.

Dan Kirschner, owner of Wild Spirit Guide Service in Ishpeming, said the shift might benefit hound hunters who run bear later in the season.

“The more tags available the more opportunity for people to get out in the woods,” Kirschner said.

But more hunters also could lower success rates for the late season, he said.

“You are spreading these animals out more,” Kirschner said. “An extra 100 tags in a unit could potentially be an added 300 bait sites.”

Matt Pedigo, president of the Michigan Bear Hunters Association, supports the decision to even the harvest throughout the season.

The association, however, is more focused on the bottom line, Pedigo said.

“We do believe the bear numbers are down from in the past, and we would like to see the desired harvest reduced,” he said. “We would like to see more bears in the woods.”

Wildlife officials are proposing to increase the overall number of tags statewide by 900, of which 525 will be issued south of the Mackinac Bridge.

The Lower Peninsula’s Baldwin and Gladwin units each should have 10 fewer hunters than last year, state officials said. The Red Oak unit could see licenses drop by 495.

Overall, state officials expect to issue 12,345 licenses to harvest 2,175 bears statewide, if the commission approves the recommendations in April.