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Last year, for the first time in decades, black bear hunting was allowed in Louisiana, with 11 hunters taking down a total of 10.
The number of permits will more than double this year, and Kevin Sagrera, who chairs the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, would be happy to see that number grow further.
“I would love to see us give the opportunity for people who want to hunt bear to continue hunting it,” he says. “But we have to make sure that the science is right.”
That, in a nutshell, is the commission’s job: Work with the department’s experts so that people can enjoy hunting and fishing in the Sportsman’s Paradise, while maintaining a sustainable ecosystem so the state can continue to lay claim to that title for generations to come.
As is often the case, the commission was trying to strike a balance when it crafted regulations for bear hunting. While some residents would prefer a more wide-open season, citing the nuisance the animals can create, others argued for no hunting at all of a species that was considered endangered until 2016.
(Just last week, a black bear was captured near Broadmoor United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge after it roamed around a suburban area for several days.)
The state is currently divided into seven bear management areas. Hunting last year was confined to 11 tags assigned by lottery to be used in Area 4, in the northeast corner of the state where the bear population is densest.
This year, there will be 15 permits for Area 4, along with eight in Area 1 (which stretches along south and southwest Louisiana) and three in Area 2 (centered in Pointe Coupee Parish), for a total of 26.
The tags will again be distributed by lottery and come with a mandatory training course. The season will run from Dec. 6 through Dec. 21, roughly the same timeline as last year’s.
In related news, perhaps the commission’s greatest challenge this year will be figuring out how to deal with chronic wasting disease, a highly contagious neurodegenerative disease that affects white-tailed deer.
The illness is always fatal for the deer, and while it has not been shown to be contagious to humans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recommend against the human consumption of deer known to be infected.
No two states handle CWD the same way, Sagrera says. Controlling population density, thereby limiting the opportunities for the disease to spread, is key, he says.
With that in mind, the commission has established a CWD control area where baiting and supplemental feeding of deer is not allowed. Transport of deer carcasses outside of the control area also is prohibited, with limited exceptions.
When the commission meets next week, bait shrimp licensing will be on the agenda, Sagrera says. The commission wants people to be able to continue to buy shrimp as fishing bait, he says, but it wants to make sure it won’t lead to overfishing of the species, which is likewise an important food source.
He also expects the commission to discuss nighttime bowfishing, which he says is a growing sport. Whenever that’s the case, you’ll have some user groups who like it, and some who don’t, he adds.
At this point, no new bowfishing regulations are being proposed; the commission is just gathering information from all parties.
If it does get involved, you can expect the commission, as always, to try to strike a balance.
