PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. — Saturday marks the beginning of Florida’s first bear hunt in a decade, but many would-be bear hunters won’t be gearing up to join in - and it’s not due to any shortage of bears.
Roberts Ranch and Preserve in Putnam County is home to 11,000 acres of hunting grounds and about a hundred Florida black bears, by owner Joe Roberts’ estimate.
“We probably get even more bear than most,” said Roberts.
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And Roberts explained those bears come at a huge expense. “The bears are very destructive,” said Roberts.
Roberts said not only do the bears damage feeders, fences and other infrastructure, but their presence also impacts other game animals on the property.
“And now we have no more hogs because of the bear. So, it’s you know, you have too many of one thing, it destroys the other,” said Roberts.
But Roberts explained there’s no hope of culling the bear population on his lands during this year’s bear hunt.
Even though some spent $1,000 or more to apply for bear tags, none of his 40 members were able to secure one of the 172 tags offered through FWC.
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“To not be able to get any tags to be able to manage your bear is very frustrating,” said Roberts.
That’s due in part because of the efforts by bear advocacy groups, including the Sierra Club, whose members were able to land 52 bear tags in the FWC lottery.
“The response was tremendous. 160,000 entries-plus in the lottery,” said Sierra Club’s Florida Chapter Director Susannah Randolph. “That’s pretty staggering.”
Randolph views each tag kept out of the hands of a hunter as a life saved.
In addition to the tags won in the lottery, another advocacy group, Bear Warriors United, has offered $2,000 to hunters willing to forfeit their tags.
The group told Action News Jax that 26 hunters have taken them up on the offer so far, likely leaving fewer than 100 tags in the hands of hunters who intend to harvest a bear.
Recent litigation attempting to stop the hunt entirely was rejected by a district court.
Now, Randolph argued there’s only one person with the power to fully call off the hunt.
“This movement is a whole lot bigger and a whole lot stronger than when it started, and so the Governor could really make the right call here,” said Randolph.
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Roberts wants FWC to make changes if there’s another season next year to ensure hunters stand a better chance of securing tags.
“They’ve got to find a way to stop these big organizations from buying up all the tags and not using them,” said Roberts.
It will be hard to gauge the full extent of bear advocates’ efforts until after this year’s season ends on December 28th.
Should FWC deny permits to advocates next season, Randolph said they’ll be faced with a dilemma.
She argued it could be a violation of Floridians’ new constitutional right to hunt and fish - the same amendment many advocates believe spurred the authorization of this year’s hunt in the first place.
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