I recently sent this e-mail to all our members of Provincial Parliament to ask they return the spring bear hunt.

Hello,

Ontario has a natural resource that we are not properly managing, and it’s affecting many Canadians. We used to have a spring bear hunt. It helped in managing bear-human encounters as well as provided jobs and profits to Ontario businesses, big and small. In a single month in the spring, we used to bring in $45,000,000 of revenue to our provinces businesses. It created jobs and provided business with an influx of cash at the beginning of the year. Americans used to line up at the border with $250 in hand to purchase a license. They came into Ontario with their wallets full and emptied them into our economy. The Ministry of Natural Resources has had its budget cut, yet we have a resource to sell in a well-managed, well-regulated, and renewable manner. This will bring them millions of dollars in license sales to help them to continue to provide the excellent services they do provide at less of a cost to the tax payers. Currently we are allowing this natural resource to be wasted as our communities are forced to deal with ‘problem’ bears. The bait used during the spring hunt used to provide ample food sources for bears, which helped keep them away from towns. Instead, we have increased competition for food resources by the over-population of bears. This has led to more predatory bear attacks. There have been two reported this year already. One man was attacked at his home while eating breakfast on his porch. He did everything a person could to stop the attack. The full encounter can be read here: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/man-survives-vicious-bear-attack-in-northern-ontario-1.1278336 . The second, and more recent, a biologist was stalked and forced to use bear spray on the bear. This still did not ward off the bear. Only making it back to his truck saved him as the bear continued to come after him after being twice sprayed. ( http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/story/2013/06/12/tby-bear-encounter-biologist-thunder-bay-bear-spray-opp-mnr.html ).

Since 1999 we have been living with a failed experiment that has caused increase in property damages to farms and homes. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture has called for the return of the spring bear hunt due to this increase in damage. Biologists in Manitoba have studied the spring bear hunt, and despite a lower bear population, and increasing pressure from special interest groups, have concluded that the science does support the need for the spring bear hunt for the socio-economic benefits, the bear population management, and for limiting bear-human interactions that lead to bears killed for no reason ( http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmin/tpl/Downloads/URSUS/Vol_18/U18_1_Hristienko_and_McDonald.pdf ). Misinformation was responsible for the cancellation of the spring hunt, incorrect information such as bears are the 2nd slowest reproducing land mammal. This is not true – Grizzly bears are the 2nd slowest reproducing land mammal. Black bears reproduce at almost double the rate of Grizzly bears. Estimates on the number of bear cubs being orphaned were used but had no basis in science. Realities are that many more bear cubs are orphaned due to the cancellation of the spring hunt than with the hunt, and this number is increasing as the population grows ( http://www.manitoba.ca/conservation/wildlife/hunting/pdfs/Ursus-15-01_Hristienko_et_al.pdf ). Inaccurate data about species population growth and recovery rate were given, saying it takes decades for bear populations to recover. The science shows that when the population declined to half its original size, hunting was restricted and the time required for the population to recover to its initial size was noted. When no hunting occurred during the recovery period, the black bear population recovered in 6 years. Reducing hunting pressure by 50% allowed the population to recover within 9 years. ( http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmin/tpl/Downloads/URSUS/Vol_8/Miller_BearMgtNA_8.pdf ). It’s important to note that Ontario has never over-hunted their bear population. Harvest percentage vs. the population size has always been at least maintaining a stable population, but in the past 13 years have been low enough for an increasing population. From the Bear Population Management study, the sustainable harvest rate for black bears is 15.9%. Ontario is currently well under 10%, and most years under 5%. This shows that the population is definitely rising in Ontario, and with that rise, there will be more competition for food, leading to starvation for bears, higher predation on species such as moose and deer, and higher bear-human encounters. I believe the evidence is more than enough to conclude that a spring bear hunt is an excellent use of our natural resources, and a much needed tool for managing this resource. If our government is actually concerned with job growth, revenue, and protecting and managing our wildlife and natural resources, it must be re-instated.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

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If you feel strongly about the need for a spring bear hunt, I suggest you e-mail our MPPs to bring this to light. During a time of sandal, budgets, and elections, now is the time to bring up the return of the hunt to help Ontario businesses and citizens.