Coming soon: bear season?
HUNTINGWILDLIFE COMMISSIONERS VOTE WEDNESDAY ON CREATING THE FIRST IN STATE HISTORY
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Published: March 29, 2009
State wildlife commissioners are scheduled to make a historic vote Wednesday on creating the state’s first bear hunting season.
Their vote will be contingent on
Oklahoma lawmakers passing a bill that will create a black bear hunting license, but that seems a certainty.
Both the state Senate and state
House of Representatives already have overwhelmingly passed separate — but identical — bills that will do just that.
In fact, the House bill passed 96-0.
Wednesday’s expected vote also should be anti-climatic. In anticipation of bear hunting becoming lawful, state wildlife commissioners voted 6-1 last month to establish bear hunting regulations.
It’s unlikely half of them are going to change their minds about bear hunting before Wednesday.
The lone dissenter on the
Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission is
David Riggs of Sand Springs.
Riggs, a
Tulsa attorney and former legislator, isn’t convinced Oklahoma has enough black bears to support a hunting season.
And he doesn’t think the proposed regulations offer enough protection for young bears.
He also thinks bears will be hunted as a trophy and not as a food source.
"Most of (the hunting) is going to be just for the sport,” he said. "It bothers me to think about shooting a bear just to have your picture made with it.”
Part of the state Wildlife Department’s justification for opening a bear hunting season is the increased nuisance complaints about the animals from people in southeastern Oklahoma.
Riggs doesn’t think that reason is good enough.
"You shouldn’t use that as an argument for a hunting season,” he said.
However, Riggs said he has struggled with the issue because he feels an obligation to provide more hunting and fishing opportunities for Oklahoma sportsmen since they fund the state Wildlife Department.
The state Wildlife Department is almost entirely funded by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.
"I recognize how much we owe the people who hunt and fish, or quite frankly, we wouldn’t have a Wildlife Department,” he said.
The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission’s scheduled monthly meeting begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the state Wildlife Department headquarters in
Oklahoma City, 1801 N. Lincoln.
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