FWP commission slashes rules meant to protect black bears
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) Using a no-notice amendment, the Fish, Wildlife & Parks commission voted to eliminate quotas that biologists wanted to keep black bear populations from declining. Biologists say the continuing reduction in protections for black bears could have implications for a state wanting to delist grizzly bears.
On Dec. 19, the FWP commission voted to do away with a season-ending quota for female black bears in Region 1 in northwest Montana. During the commission meeting, Region 2 commissioner Jeff Burrows proposed an amendment to rescind the quota that would stop the spring black bear hunt in any district if 37% of bears killed were female. Because the amendment was proposed during the meeting, the public was not informed in time to comment, unless they were already at the meeting.
But, back in February, the FWP commission, including Burrows and Region 1 commissioner Pat Tabor, approved the 37% limit. They wanted to lengthen the spring bear season by two weeks so they agreed to the quota, which the department said would prevent killing too many female bears. In February, Burrows called the 37% quota “a good stopgap.” Ten months later, they had changed their minds.
In February, the department, under pressure from Tabor, submitted a proposal to lengthen the spring season in four Region 1 districts. But during the February meeting, Commissioner Brian Cebull wanted more, proposing an amendment to lengthen the season statewide. The amendment passed with Commissioners KC Walsh and Susan Brooke voting no. Brooke said she hadn’t heard from hunters wanting a longer season.
Meanwhile, some sportsmen are troubled by the trend in the number of amendments that commissioners are proposing at the last minute and passing with no advance notice.
“I want to express concern over how this is being brought forward,” Mike Mershon of the Montana Wildlife Federation said on Dec. 19. “These agenda amendments make it difficult to get the word out to the public and shortens the window to respond, research and develop comments.”
According to FWP, Region 1 has historically had the most black bears in the state due to having the best bear habitat. But Tabor, who has an outfitting business in the Swan Valley that offers bear hunts, said the black bear population should be reduced to help elk in the region.
Bear biologists said eliminating the quota could hurt the black bear population. Region 1 supervisor Neil Anderson said during the Dec. 19 meeting that the 37% limit was imposed for a good reason: Black bears in Region 1 have been hammered, especially after hunting regulations started changing in 2021.
“We were coming off two years of almost record harvest in black bears. In 2021 and 2022, we harvested over 700 bears each year in Region 1 alone, almost 1,500 in two years,” Anderson said. “Over the last two years, black bear harvest dropped to 455 in 2023 and again last year. So we probably did dig into the black bear population pretty good in 2021 and ’22, even though the season at that time ended on May 31.”
Former FWP bear biologist Tim Manley, who retired three years ago, said he thinks the black bear population in northwest Montana has been negatively affected.
“I don't see black bears very often when in the field. Over the years, the black bears that I would catch in culvert traps or see on remote cameras at bait or trap sites have diminished. Of course, that is just my observation, but I have talked to other biologists. They also feel like the black bear population has been negatively affected over the years,” Manley said.
The spring black bear season used to run from April 15 to May 31 in most districts across the state. Then during the February 2022 commission meeting, Tabor started pushing for changes to black bear regulations, including extending the season until June 15 statewide. Bear Unit 130, where Tabor runs his Swan Valley outfitting business, ended up with the extended season.
But the commission tabled the statewide proposal after biologists argued that extending hunting into June leads to two problems: a greater likelihood of killing females since they emerge later in the spring, and bears have shed their winter hair so their coats aren’t as good. In addition, biologists were worried more bears would die after the 2021 Legislature passed a bill allowing spring hound hunting for bears, a practice previously banned in Montana because it’s not considered fair-chase.
Female bears need more protection than males so they can raise cubs. FWP bear biologist Richard Mace published research in 2011 that showed bear populations would decline if more than 40% of the black bears shot in a year were female. Biologists adjusted that to 37% in Region 1 when they stopped requiring hunters to bring bears to FWP for inspection in 2022. Instead, hunters in Region 1 are allowed to fill out a report and send in two molars so biologists can try to age the bears. But FWP discovered that hunters aren’t always accurate.
“As you start to harvest the population more aggressively, we start to see younger bears and more female bears in the harvest - that’s what we’re seeing from tooth data and reports,” said FWP Big Game Chief Brian Wakeling in February. “The magic number is 40%, but we’ve also learned that about 3% of hunters will misidentify the sex. When 37% of the harvest is female bears then the population is probably in decline. If we’re trying to maintain stable populations, that’s the number we want.”
During the commission meeting this past February, Tabor criticized biologists for speaking up, saying they shouldn't argue against the proposals made by FWP leadership. Then on Dec. 19, Tabor praised Idaho’s “management philosophy” regarding bears - Idaho allowed hound hunting long before Montana and allows hunters to use bear bait, which has attracted more than one grizzly bear - and said a decline in the bear population is in order.
Rather than listen to biologists, Tabor said FWP should listen to hunters who have the opinion that something should be done about black bears.
“I feel like the 37% is uber-conservative,” Tabor said during the Dec. 19 meeting. “Even a slight decrease in the bear population is of interest to most of the folks that live there and have this feeling about the condition of our ungulates.”
Former FWP biologist Tim Thier, who started his career doing black bear research in the Yaak Valley, said killing too many female black bears, especially after so many bears were killed a few years ago, could lead to big losses in the population, especially if environmental conditions worsen.
“The solution is not to go out and kill more females in the backcountry. They have a very low reproductive rate. They aren’t that much different from grizzly bears, and grizzly bears are held as one of the slowest reproducing species in the country. Black bears are right behind them,” Thier said. “They don’t breed until they’re four or five, and they don’t produce until they’re five or six, and then it’s only every couple of years, provided you have decent berries. If you don’t have decent berries, they don’t reproduce. We’ve got to be damn careful.”
Wakeling said FWP could change the quota for next spring if they see a change. But FWP doesn’t track black bear populations on a continual basis, and there’s already been a decline in the number of bears killed.
“If you talk to Wayne Casworm, who’s done research in those areas for long periods of time, if you look at the catch rate of black bears today compared to what they were in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it’s not like it used to be,” Thier said.
Mace’s 10-year study was the last time FWP did any population monitoring. At that time, hunters statewide killed slightly more than 1,000 bears annually. Far more bears are killed now.
Since 2010, no direct monitoring has occurred. Biologists depended on mandatory carcass inspections to record minimum information on basic bear demographics, such as sex, age and whether females were lactating and had cubs. But since 2022, Region 1 no longer has inspections.
In 2023, FWP launched a multi-year project to monitor black bears in different regions. In 2023, biologists conducted research mostly in Region 2 along the Clark Fork, Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers. Then this past year, biologists collared around 30 bears in Region 1 near Kalispell, although five had already died by February, Wakeling said. It’s not known when useful data might be produced.
Region 3 Commissioner Susan Brooke has repeatedly asked for better data before having to vote on some amendments. She questioned Tabor’s claims that black bears were affecting elk populations to the point where bear populations should be reduced, which led to a testy exchange between the two.
In Region 3, where plenty of black bears reside, elk populations are over-objective to the point that biologists have to schedule damage hunts to try to control elk herds, Brooke said.
“When these amendments come to us about managing predators and making decisions about predators because of ungulate populations, it would really be helpful if we had data on what ungulate populations we’re talking about and where we are on population objectives,” Brooke said.
Those wanting to increase mountain lion and wolf hunting and trapping quotas in Region 1 have used similar arguments, saying that low elk numbers justified killing more wolves or lions. For that reason, in June 2021, Tabor and Cebull both said they would like to see a map showing wolf density versus elk density or that of other ungulates in Regions 1, 2 and 3. That information has not been provided, although FWP started a study in 2023 monitoring elk, wolves, black bears and mountain lions along the lower Clark Fork River.
Habitat, rather than predators, could have a bigger influence on elk. Anderson has said in previous commission meetings that elk recruitment is historically low in northwestern Montana, partly because some areas have substandard habitat for elk. In some areas, elk winter range has been lost, because smooth brome, a nonnative grass, has replaced native browse.
For that reason, Anderson said FWP Region 1 doesn’t conduct many annual elk counts, so the elk abundance in northwestern Montana is not well documented. However, in some areas, such as north Lincoln County, there are enough elk to cause private property damage so FWP has allowed elk hunts during the shoulder season.
Meanwhile, what habitat remains is rapidly filling with people. Since the start of the pandemic, Flathead County has been the fastest growing county in Montana, gaining almost 7,500 people between July 2020 and July 2022.
The growth extends throughout northwest Montana as subdivisions erupt and sprawl across former agricultural land and push into the wildland-urban interface, increasing the number and frequency of people driving trucks and OHV’s across once-quiet country where elk harbored.
Although they can kill newborn elk calves, bears may be the least of the problem for elk in Region 1. But the elk-population excuse may be a problem for bears if many more die this spring. Thier said it was too bad fewer Montanans are getting see black bears in the wild.
“When I have visitors from out-of-state, they want to see a bear. Yeah, we have issues around towns because we have more and more people leaving out attractants, fruit trees and things like that. But we don’t have the black bears we used to have in the outlying areas,” Thier said. “This issue has nothing to do with ungulate predation by black bears and everything to do with outfitters trying to make more money.”
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.