Oklahoma House loaded for bear hunting
BY MICHAEL MCNUTT
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Published: February 17, 2009
Southeastern Oklahoma no longer will be a sanctuary for black bears if a bill that won unanimous approval Monday in the House becomes law.
House Bill 1464 allows up to 20 black bears to be killed during the fall in four southeastern counties, said Rep. R.C. Pruett, the measure’s author. Pruett, D-Antlers, said he filed the measure because a growing number of residents have filed nuisance complaints about black bears — which can weigh about 500 pounds — coming by their houses and rooting through trash. HB 1464 now goes to the Senate, where a similar measure is pending after a Senate committee passed it earlier this month. Last year, a similar bill was passed by a House committee but the full House didn’t hear it. Pruett, who said he might hunt black bear, said the season would probably start in November before black bears head to their dens. It would end when 20 were harvested in an area that covers Pushmataha, McCurtain, Latimer and Le Flore counties. It’s estimated about 500 bears inhabit those counties; about 700 to 800 are estimated to be living in the entire state. A bear hunting permit would have to be bought in addition to an Oklahoma hunter’s license, he said. Residents would pay $100 for the bear permit and out-of-state residents would pay $500. He said he’s had "a few complaints” from people who are opposed to black bears being hunted. No one spoke against the bill on the House floor. Robert "Bud” Scott, a lobbyist for the Oklahoma chapter of the Sierra Club, said his organization is not opposing the bill. "So long as there’s sound conservation practices put in place that will ensure the integrity of the species, we’re OK — as long as it’s regulated well by the Department of Wildlife,” he said. Rep. Daniel Sullivan, R-Tulsa, jokingly asked Pruett if black bear hunters – similar to anglers – would have "to throw back” small ones. Pruett, who has never seen a black bear in the wild, said state wildlife officials consider the harvesting of 20 black bears a year to be sufficient. Many of the black bears are entering the state from Arkansas, Pruett said. According to its Web site, Arkansas allows 60 bears to be killed during a season; hunters are to call the night before they hunt to check to see if the quota has been reached. Arkansas has about 4,000 black bears. "They keep migrating west,” Pruett said. "Hillbilly bears, I guess that’s what we call them.”
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